2020: Most Full Moons In A Year?

Even though the COVID 19 pandemic has reduced amateur astronomy into a much lonelier endeavor, will this year’s surfeit of full moons be a consolation - and a special time - to amateur astronomers?

By: Ringo Bones

The global astronomical community announced back in January that 2020 will be a very interesting year for amateur astronomers and stargazers the world over because it will have 13 full moons instead of the regular 12. And October 2020 will be a special time because it is when two full moons will occur in the same month, not to mention another rare astronomical event is set to happen this month – a 100-percent full moon falling on Halloween night.

October 2020 will prove to be of interest to amateur astronomers and stargazers around the word because it will be a “full moon event” – i.e. two full moons occurring on the same month. For more than half a century, if two full moons fall on the same month, it is dubbed as a blue moon. Ideally, a blue moon event happens once every two and a half to three years. The October 1^st full moon of 2020 was dubbed as a “Harvest Moon” as such events have been called since antiquity, and the Halloween Full Moon of 2020 that will occur on October 31^st will be dubbed as a “Hunter’s Moon” – i.e. the full moon that occurs after a Harvest Moon.

Even though artistic depictions of Halloween night – more often than not – had always shown a full moon high in the sky with kids in various Halloween costumes trick or treating the night away, a full moon occurring on a Halloween night is actually a relatively rare event. The last time that Halloween night was illuminated by a 100-percent full moon was back in 1944.

Ideally, a 100-percent full moon on Halloween is supposed to happen once every 19 years, but given that the 31^st of October falls on a different day of the week year after year, a full moon on Halloween is a very rare event indeed. According to astronomers, the next time a 100-percent full moon will be shining on a Halloween evening after 2020 will occur in the year 2039, then in 2058, then in 2077 and the last one for the 21^st Century will occur in 2096.

The good news is that even if a scheduled 100-percent full moon event will fall a day or two before or after the October 31^st Halloween night, it can still serve as a spooky Halloween night backdrop because since most people, and most general-purpose hand-held cameras, can’t tell the difference between a 100-percent full moon and a “mere” 98-percent full moon. Because of this, October 31, 2031 Halloween night will seem to appear just as spooky to future Halloween revelers as this coming October 31, 2020 Halloween night.

No Big Ben Bongs For Brexit?

Given that this iconic bell is attached to the world’s most iconic timepiece, does the failure of the proposed Big Ben bong to mark Brexit on the “right side of history”?

By: Ringo Bones

For clarification purposes, the Big Ben is the nickname of the Great Bell of the London Clock Tower and ever since its completion back in May 31, 1859, this iconic landmark is not just a must see tourist attraction, but also to remind anyone that this is the world’s standard timekeeper given its location right smack in line on the Greenwich Prime Meridian.

Unfortunately, Big Ben’s chimes were silenced since August 21, 2017 to allow essential restoration work lasting four years to be carried out on the tower. The last significant work carried out on the tower was back in 1983 to 1985. Because of ongoing repairs, it would have took UK£500,000 to enable Big Ben to be “temporarily” working by Friday, January 31, 2020 at 23:00 GMT – the scheduled date for the current Brexit. But due to safety reasons of the workers currently doing maintenance work on Big Ben, the UK House of Commons refused to fund the scheme of a “Brexit Bong” and the fundraising instead fell on a popular pro Brexit crowdfunding scheme. The House of Commons also refused to accept the croudfunding money even if it was raised in time for a January 31, 2020 “Brexit Bong” for the cited safety reasons. So far, as of four days ago, only UK£272,000 had been raised and it will instead go to fund a UK war veterans’ charity called Help for Heroes.

Given that a Big Ben Brexit Bong would have been a politically contentious issue – especially to EU citizens saddened by the UK’s departure from the European Union, many say that Brexit would significantly lower the UK’s standing in the geopolitical stage in the long run. It would only be a matter of time before the Greenwich Prime Meridian would become just another “obscure astronomical term” like India’s Allahabad Observatory – only known to seasoned ship’s navigators and seasoned astronomers.

Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time: The Most Comprehensive Book On Time So Far?

Is The order of Time the most comprehensive book on time ever published because the author tackles on the perceptual and descriptive aspects to the scientific definition of time?

By: Ringo Bones

According to the book’s author – theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli – time is an illusion: our naïve perception of its flow doesn’t correspond to physical reality. Unlike most recently published books on the nature of time authored by theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovell’s The Order of Time also has chapters explaining why Medieval pheasants understood time better than the average 21^st Century layperson, as in they understood time better than we do - even way better than 19^th Century economists and policymakers in fact. Rovelli says the railroad industry boom and the widespread adoption of trains were the reason for the standardization of time, like the establishment of time zones in the continental United States. In this book, Rovelli also states that the standardization of time eventually lead to Einstein’s discoveries. Even though the latest concepts on the nature of time is also discussed by Rovelli, he tends to return to Medieval era philosophers when referring to how the layperson perceive time like how time is tied to everything that makes us suffer and on how time shapes our identities.

Rovelli is one of the creators and champions of loop quantum gravity theory, one of the several ongoing attempts to marry quantum mechanics with general relativity. In contrast to the better-known string theory, loop quantum gravity does not attempt to be a “theory of everything” out of which we can integrate all of particle physics and gravitation. Nevertheless, the agenda of loop quantum gravity to combine these two fundamentally differing laws is incredibly ambitious. Along with his work on loop quantum gravity, Rovelli puts forward the idea of “physics without time”. This stems from the fact that some equations of quantum gravity (such as the Wheeler-DeWitt equation which assigns quantum states to the Universe) can be written without any reference to time at all.

Even though it is very insightful – i.e. the format of integrating classical education and scientific education’s ideas about time – I still have lingering doubts about Rovelli’s ideas on loop quantum gravity or the thermal time hypothesis. And even though this book seems to tackle every aspect or time from the metaphysical to the scientific, this book alone is unlikely to make the average reader as well-versed about time in comparison to say, William Penrose or the late Stephen Hawking or give them enough information to render judgment whether Rovelli’s views are on the right track when it comes to advancing humanity’s understanding on the true nature of time. Comprehensive so far – yes indeed, but I’d rather be more interested in a book as comprehensive as this, but one that tackles the still theoretical subject of sending information and data faster than the speed of light.

Should The European Union Abandon Daylight Saving Time?

Even though it was originally meant as an energy-saving measure to switch on street and road lights only when absolutely necessary, should the EU abandon Daylight Saving Time because of “debatable benefits”?

By: Ringo Bones

The EU is set to end the “quaint” practice of changing our clocks twice a year – i.e. Daylight Saving Time – in 2021, at least in some states. The European Parliament has taken another step towards freeing members of the bloc from the mandated change, but why is it taking too long? European Union spokesperson Alexander Winterstein has been the most vocal opponent of the EU still adhering to the “quaint practice” of Daylight Saving Time and legend has it that it was only as a bit of fun when that late-rising American statesman Benjamin Franklin proposed daylight savings time back in 1784 and for more than two centuries, it has been a topic of controversy.

The UK adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1916 along with many other nations involved in World War One in order to conserve coal used for electricity generation. It followed years of pressure from William Willett - the great, great grandfather of Coldplay singer Chris Martin, but the UK had its own debate about time zones. In 2011, Number 10 Downing Street proposed a three-year trial of moving to Central European Time, so the UK time would be GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer months. The change would have meant lighter evenings but darker mornings and one of the arguments for it was that it would reduce road accidents. But it was abandoned after opposition from Scotland and northern England, where some areas would not have seen daylight until 10 o’clock in the morning under the proposal.

Back around the end of August 2018, European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said millions “believe that in future, summer time should be year-round, and that’s what will happen.” The EU Commissioner’s proposal requires support from the 28 national governments and MEP’s to become law. In the EU, clocks switch between winter and summer under Daylight Saving Time. In a recent EU-wide public consultation, 84-percent of the 4.6-million respondents called for the ending of the spring and autumn clock change. By far, the biggest response was in Germany (3.79-percent) and Austria (2.94-percent) of the national population respectively. The UK’s response was the lowest at 0.02-percent, but few Italians took part either with only 0.04-percent taking part. Most Europeans dislike the practice of Daylight Saving Time because some recent studies cited by the European Commission point to adverse health impacts from the clock changes as findings suggest that the effect on the human biorhythm may be more than severe than previously thought as clocks go forward by an hour on the last Sunday in March and switch back to winter time on the last Sunday in October.

Photographic Zenith Tube: The Forgotten Rotational Time Measurement Tool?

If the GPS system ever fails, will the Photographic Zenith Tube be a useful alternative in the measurement of rotational time?

By: Ringo Bones 

During the months leading to Operation Desert Storm, US Navy navigation personnel patrolling the Persian Gulf at the time were ordered to take sextant measurements every 6 hours at night to determine if the then Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein had acquired technology to screw up the GPS navigation system. The constellation of 24 navigational satellites in geosynchronous orbit that has since became an indispensable tool in navigation with an error rate of plus/minus 30 feet or less. Are there also other tools – as in astronomical time or rotational time determining tools that we can use to check if somebody’s screwing up with the proper functioning of our GPS system? 

The Photographic Zenith Tube – or PZT – is one of the more accurate tools used to measure rotational time. It was designed by Frank E. Ross back in 1909 and was adopted for time determination at the US Naval Observatory in 1934. The PZT is a telescope of 15-foot focal length and 8-inch aperture pointing directly to the zenith. A small photographic plate is placed about ½-inch below the lens. A basin of mercury located at half the focal length below the lens reflects the light from the stars, which comes to a focus at the plate. The lens and photographic plate can be rotated 180-degrees as a unit about a vertical axis. 

Four exposures of a star were taken, of 20 seconds duration each, with the lens in alternate positions. A motor drives the plate so as to track the star and compensate for its diurnal motion and time pulses are generated by the moving plate carriage. By means of a chronograph it is possible to relate the impulses to some particular clock. The photographic plate is developed and the images are measured. By combining these measures with the chronograph readings, it is possible to determine what the clock read when the star was on the meridian.

Determining Rotational Time

Given that mere civilians now have access to the US DoD’s GPS satellite navigational system, is it still important to determine rotational time?

By: Ringo Bones 

During the months leading to Operation Desert Storm, US Navy navigation personnel of vessels patrolling the Persian Gulf at the time were ordered to take periodic sextant readings – as in every six hours during the evening - to determine if the then Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein had already acquired tech to jam and / or disrupt with the proper operation of the US DoD’s GPS satellite navigational system to everyone using it in the Persian Gulf region. Given this dilemma, can methods of determining rotational time be useful as a double check to find out if the GPS navigational system is still working properly? 

The rotation of the Earth causes the stars to appear to move from east to west. Rotational time is determined by observing the passage of stars across a reference line, such as the local meridian, fixed with respect to the observing station. The “small transit instrument,” a telescope mounted about a horizontal axis that lies in the east-west direction, was chiefly used, formerly to determine rotational time. The telescope can be pointed to any elevation in the meridian. The passage of a star across the meridian is observed in the focal plane of the telescope, which contains a spider thread. The time of passage of the star is indicated with the aid of a chronograph – a device which registers clock impulses along with those generated at the transit instrument. Thus, what the clock read when the star was on the meridian is obtained. 

What Is Ephemeris Time?

Now largely replaced by more accurate atomic clocks, does the monitoring of ephemeris time has become a largely esoteric astronomical exercise? 

 By: Ringo Bones 

In recent years, modern atomic clocks and Global Positioning System based timekeeping have largely relegated the computation of ephemeris time – also known as terrestrial time – into something of an arcane esoteric astronomical exercise. Despite its lesser relevance to contemporary ultra-accurate timekeeping, it is worth noting that the “timekeepers” at the US Naval Observatory still do this with refreshing regularity. 

Ephemeris time may be defined by the motion of any planet of the Solar System or by any of their satellites. Astronomers have formerly defined ephemeris time by the orbital motion of the Earth around the Sun. It may be obtained by observing the position of the Sun with respect to the stars; however, in practice this is difficult to do and it is obtained from the orbital motion of the Moon above the Earth. 

This concept of astronomical time is based on the monthly motion of the Moon among the stars may be considered to form a clock wherein the stars represent the hour marks and the Moon represents the pointer. To utilize the Moon for this purpose, its ephemeris must be calculated with great exactitude and its position must be precisely determined by observation. The ephemeris of the Moon is based upon the mathematical researches of Ernest William Brown (1866 – 1938) at Yale University. 

The position of the Moon has usually been determined from meridian transits and from occultations of stars. A more recent method is to photograph the Moon among the stars with a dual-rate camera developed by William Markowitz at the US Naval Observatory in 1951. By means of a central, dark, plane-parallel glass filter, which is tilted during an exposure of about 20 seconds, the image of the Moon is given an artificial motion which cancels the normal motion of the Moon with respect to the stars. Thus, the Moon is held fixed relative to the stars and sharp images of both the Moon and the stars are obtained. Since the positions of the stars are known, measurement of the plate gives the position of the Moon with respect to the stars. This is entered in the lunar ephemeris and the corresponding ephemeris time is obtained.