AST 0112

roberto.puddu@uc.cl

Noticias:

VISIT TO OBSERVATORY ARE SUSPENDED AT LEAST FOR

MARCH. DEPENDING ON CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IT
MAY BE EXTENDED.
 Eclipses
 The plane of the lunar orbit is inclined 5.2 degrees with respect to the
ecliptic plane

 For this reason, eclipses due to alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth
are relatively rare.
Eclipses
 Eclipses of the Moon

 Eclipses of the Moon are

more frequent that those
of the Sun
 Additionally, the time
duration is longer than
those of the Sun
 This demonstrates that
the Earth > Moon in
size.
 Why is the umbral phase
of a lunar eclipse not
completely dark?
 Eclipses of
the Sun

 Depending on
the type of
occultation,
eclipses of the
Sun can be total,
partial, or
annular.
 Anular Eclipses

Since the lunar orbit is

quite elliptical, distance of
moon from earth can vary
sensibly. This affects
directly the apparent size
of the moon as seen from
earth.

If a solar eclipse happens

when the moon is at apogee,
the lunar disk is smaller and
will not cover the whole solar
disk, so we just can see a
ring. That’s an anular
eclipse.
 Eclipse of the Sun
 Solar Eclipse: as seen from the Earth and the Moon.

simulation
Eclipses Solares
 Eclipses of the Sun

2 July 2019
Total Solar Eclipse in Chile

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html

14 Dec 2020 Pucon/Temuco/…

 Eclipses of the Sun

 During the total phase

the outer corona of the
sun becomes visible.
 The photosphere of
the Sun normally
outshines the corona.
 The magnetic field
structure around the
Sun is visible as the
coronal mass ejection
carry material into the
solar system.
 The Saros Cycle
Eclipse geometries repeat on what is known as the Saros Cycle, which
arises from the periodicity and harmonic of three orbital cycles of the Moon:
 Synodic Month (new moon to new moon) = 29d 12h 44m 03s
 Anomalistic Month (perigee to perigee) = 27d 13h 18m 33s
 Draconic Month (node to node) = 27d 05h 05m 36s

One Saros cycle is therefore equal to ~6,585.3 days

 223 Synodic Months = 6585d 07h 43m
 239 Anomalistic Months = 6585d 12h 54m
 242 Draconic Months = 6585d 08h 35m

The Saros Cycle repeats eclipses every ~18 years 11 days 8 hours, but
does not produce the same patterns as viewed from Earth, because the
period is not equal to a whole number of days.
Eclipses of the Sun
Moon Affects Tides
Caused by slight
differential gravitational
forces on near and far
side of Earth facing the
Moon.

Daily effect relatively

small: 0.1% change in
gravity force between
near and far sides.

During course of 1 day,

“effective” net force Earth rotates through 2
high and 2 low tides.

Compare height of typical

high/low tides to pole and
equator radius difference
due to rotation.
 Sun Also Affect Tides
“Spring”

strong

“Neap”

The Sun also produces tides weak

(~5x weaker than Moon).

These can add or cancel

with those of the Moon.
 “Movements” of the Moon

Moon distance varies by approximately +/- 5% from apogee to perigee

➠ ~20% gravitational force variation (causes perigean tides)
➠ Slight perceived “wobble” (libration) allows ~59% surface visible from Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv6zmKcmBf0
“Movements” of the Moon
 Have you ever thought that the Moon looks bigger near the
horizon than when overhead?

A. YES
B. NO
C. NOT SURE
D. NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT
IF yes, why does the Moon look dramatically larger sometimes and smaller others?

A. In its orbit around the Earth, it occasionally gets really close or really far
B. It expands and contracts due to tidal forces
C. The atmosphere acts as a magnifying glass so it is bigger sometimes
D. It is an optical illusion

Can the Moon’s distance

change much in 6 hrs?
 Theme
• Time:
Calendars
Measures of time
 CALENDARS
Calendars are conventional schemes for timekeeping and have had great importance
of measuring the passage of time in various human civilizations. First recorded
calendars date back to the Bronze Age. Later versions were more sophisticated and
were based on astronomical periods and cycles.
Example: Mayan and Aztec calendar, very advanced.

The Aztec calendar is composed of two fundamental

interlocking cycles with a period of 52 years (also
referred to as “century”):
Astronomical cycle (xiuhpohualli - year count): 365
days to keep track with the seasons and agricultural
rituals, consisting of 18 months (meztli) of 20 days
(veintenas) plus five extra (unlucky) days

Sacred cycle (tonalpohualli - day count): 260 days

dedicated to spiritual rituals and deities with two
interlocking cycles of 13 days (trecena) and 20
periods

The Aztecs were aware that the solar year has not an
integer number of 365 days, but they did not use a
leap year correction. It is assumed that they kept track
of the excess day counts to comply with astronomical
events. However, no records exist on such a practice
in the Aztec Long Count calendar.
 CALENDARS
There is general consensus to divide years (Earth orbital period) into months
(lunar orbit periods) and days (Earth rotation period). Knowing the number of a
day and the month's name can then refer precisely to any day of the year.
Difficulty: Every calendar faces the problem that the solar year is 365.242199
days long (365 days 5h:48m:46s), while the time between two full moons is
29.530589 days. Consequently, in 1 year there are 12.37 moon cycles
(365.24 / 29.53 = 12.37). These cycles are not divisible by integer numbers.

Example: 12 months of 29.5 days do

not make a year. One calendar system
added an extra month every few years
because of the gap.

If we take 365 days in a year there is a

lag of 0.242199 days per year. After 100
years we would have 24 days of lag.
See problem with Aztec calendar!
 CALENDARS
Historically in the Western Hemisphere we impose the
calendar structure of the Roman Republic (based on the
“FASTI”):

Roman chronological lists or calendar-type recordings

Week: 7 days, one for each planet + sun + moon
Lunes ➟ Luna Luna
Martes ➟ Luna Marte
Miércoles ➟ Luna Mercurio
Jueves ➟ Luna Júpiter

FASTI
Viernes ➟ Luna Venus
Sábado ➟ Luna Saturno
Domingo ➟ Luna Sol

Month: between 28 and 31 days, associated with the

synodic period (time between two full Moons)
Year: associated with the period of revolution of the Earth
around the Sun and the repetition of seasons: 12 months
= 52 weeks
This Early Roman calendar had 12 months of 29 or 31 days, and ended in February, but
required an occasional extra month of 27 days every ~5-6 years to align things!
=> system was a bit chaotic and meant a misalignment of dates
with astronomical positions.
 Julian Calendar
Julius Caesar (in 46 BC) tried to fix things by adopting the
strategy of the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes
(Σωσιγένης):):
It was known at the time that the solar/tropical year lasted 365.25 days
365
Established a convention that there would be three consecutive years of
days, then one year of 366 days
Year
Every 4th year, an extra day is added to February: Introduction of Leap

known
Realign year to begin on Jan. 1 (this meant that 46 BC was 445 days long!
as “last year of confusion”)

This greatly reduced the calendar-season alignment problem;

now there was only a difference of ~1 day in 100 years.

Julius Caesar died in 44 BC: July was named in honor of his

birth month

August renamed in 8 BC to honor Augustus Caesar.

This calendar worked well up to 1582 A.D., by which point there

was again an appreciable discrepancy between the equinox,
spring and astronomically-defined holidays like Easter.
 Gregorian Calendar
The discrepancy between the Julian and Solar year (365.242199 d) is 11m14s.

By the year 1582 A.D. this had amounted to 10 days offset.

Pope Gregorio XIII tried to improve the situation by:

 Deleting the period October 5-14, 1582 from record.
 Proposing to skip 3 days every four centuries.
In his reformed calendar, years that end in 00’s (e.g. 1900, 2000) skip leap years,
unless they are divisible by 400.
This corrected the calendar to within ~1 day in 3300 years (1 year = 365.2425 days)
 Gregorian Calendar
Catholic countries adopted this immediately, but Protestant and other countries did not until
later epochs. From 1582 to 1923, dual dates were often listed to avoid confusion (Julian
and Gregorian).

In 1800s, Herschel proposed skipping leap years in 4000, 8000, etc. Such a calendar would
only lose ~1 day every 20000 years. We still need to get there first!
 Universal Time
GMT = Greenwich Mean Time, UT = Universal Time
Mean Solar time as observed from the meridian of Greenwich, UK (longitude = 0). Established in 1685,
although disputed for 200+ years with the meridian definition in Paris and Belgium.
A country’s Local Time is related to GMT and its time zone (e.g., UTC/GMT-4).
The time in a place refers to a time zone and can be somewhat arbitrary ➠ up to 2 hrs “off”.
 Daylight Savings (summer time)
Controversial (and complex) time shift of official “noon” to exploit sunlight after working hours.
Good: ~0.5% energy savings?, retailers, sports vs. Bad: farming, economic and social confusion.
Often attributed to Benjamin Franklin (satirically suggests Parisians rise early to conserve candles).
But, precise schedules not really required until rail and communication forced modern standardization of time
(past 1900s).
Modern version suggested by Hudson in NZ (also Willett in UK). However, not implemented until WWI (1918).
First introduced nationwide by the German and Austria-Hungary Empire, starting on April 30, 1916.

Northern hemisphere summer

Southern hemisphere summer
Formerly used daylight savings or permanent daylight
savings
Never used daylight savings

https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/chile/santiago
 Julian Day (not to be confused with Julian year!)

 Sometimes it is necessary to express the instant of an observation as a certain

number of days plus some fraction of some fundamental time, avoiding all the
historic mess with switching calendars and leap years.

 For the “zero point” of such a scale, Astronomer J. C. Scaliger (1484–1558)

proposed in 1583 that noon of January 1, 4713 BC shall mark the beginning of the
Julian Day. This date refers to a time when the Solar and Lunar cycle (along with an
ancient 15-year document-dating cycle called Indiction) coincided, at a time which
predated any recorded human history. The number of days from that date onwards
is the Julian Day (JD).

 Important: Each new day begins at 12h00m (noon) Julian GMT (UT), which is a
half-day gap with the Gregorian calendar day.

 Example: the Julian day 2,458,358.125 equals noon on Aug 27th, 2018 in Chile.
 It is common to use the Julian calendar for astronomical events, for example light
curve periods and other recurrent events.
 Clocks throughout history
(1500BC-1900AD)

 General increase in precision with “time” ~1960 AD

 Measuring Time (and rotation)
 Léon Foucault suspended in 1851 a 28 kg brass mass
from a 67 m cord in the Pantheon of Paris (Foucault’s
Pendulum).
 The pendulum made marks in the sand, demonstrating
that its plane of oscillation was not permanent, but rotated!
 This is due to Earth’s daily rotation and can be used to
define the latitude of a location on Earth.
 The oscillation period (T) of the classic pendulum depends
only on the pendulum length (L) and the local gravity
acceleration (g), and can be used to:
 measure the time period (T) for a known pendulum
length (L), i.e. clock, or
 determine the local gravity (g) for a defined pendulum
length (L) together with a precise clock (gravity
pendulum)

g 50th anniversary of the experiment on November 2, 1902

 Foucault’s Pendulum
 Foucault’s Pendulum at the Pole:
The oscillation plane (OP) of the
pendulum remains fixed, but in the
reference frame of Earth it rotates as
Earth rotates underneath
At the North Pole rotation of the OP
clockwise
At the South Pole rotation of the OP
counter-clockwise
 Foucault’s Pendulum at the Equator:
If the pendulum is located at the Equator,
the plane of oscillation remains fixed
relative to Earth.
 Foucault’s Pendulum at other Latitudes:
The plane of oscillation precesses relative
to Earth, but slower than at the pole.
The period of revolution P = (23h
See: https://youtu.be/pk1y_qIAQ-w
56m)/sinΦ, where latitudes Φ north and Another intuitive visualization at: https://youtu.be/YhXLxc1hzxM
south of the equator are defined as
positive and negative, respectively.
 Ephemeris Time (ET)
 UT (solar time) and ST (sidereal time) are related to the period of rotation of the
Earth. But this period is not constant. The Earth’s rotation shows irregularities on
“short” time scales of order seconds to minutes, and is slowing down on longer time
scales due to tidal effects between the Moon and Earth.
 The ET is calculated by the motion of the Moon (a so-called “dynamical time scale”),
which was assumed to be uniform (but it wasn’t, of course! )

 For example, the day was lengthened

ET-UT=51 sec
1/2000 sec per 100 years (0.000005
(Jan. 1900 vs Jan. 1980)
sec/yr) due to the gravitational action
of the moon.
 Astronomers need to measure time
evenly. Ephemeris Time (ET) used
from 1952 to ~1970, but phased out by
atomic clocks.
 International Atomic Time (TAI)
 Atomic clocks use electronic transition frequency as unit of time and are the current
standard for civil timekeeping (since 1972).
 TAI is the basis for Terrestrial Time (TT) and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) systems
 TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 200 atomic clocks in ~70 national
laboratories worldwide, compared using satellites.
 The majority of the standard atomic clocks today are using Caesium atoms to define 1
second
 Definition of the International Second written in terms of 9,192,631,770 cycles of microwave
frequency emitted by a 133Cs atom jumping between two hyperfine nuclear spin states

Sr optical
87

transition
clocks Overtaking
Cs
Quantum
lattice clocks

GPS atomic clock on a chip

 Leap Seconds
The slowing rotation of Earth due to the tidal effects the Moon has on Earth's rotation
requires the correction of a leap second to keep the UTC time as close as possible
to the mean solar time (UT1). This slowing rate is ~2.3 msec/century.
Since the introduction of the leap second correction in 1972, a total of 27 leap
seconds were inserted into UTC, the most recent happened on December 31, 2016
at 23:59:60 UTC.
 Measuring Precise Time
 Using the Sun (UT),
stars (ST), Moon (ET)
and Earth as in
ancient times is not so
useful due to chaotic
effects and period
drift. There are better
astronomical
standards, such as
pulsars with rotation
periods of
milliseconds.
 However, we need
very precise clocks
today (e.g., GPS,
guidance/control
systems,
synchronization,
computing, finance,
etc.)
 Time and GPS
 Global Positioning System (GPS) works with a
network of (32) satellites that constantly transmit
timing signals to the ground-receiver stations and Distance = speed of light × ΔTTi
users.
 GPS is made possible by miniaturization of
atomic clocks that are stable enough in orbit.
 GPS satellites have a known position and time!
Usually more than 4
satellite signals are
used to compute the
real orbit exact location, which
also allows for errors
predicted
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 Time and GPS
 GPS satellites emit ~15-sec digital signal bursts
that identify each satellite and synchronize all
satellites and receivers to generate internally
the same digital code at the same time.
 When the GPS receiver receives a code from a
satellite, it cross-correlates that with the signal
stored in its memory and “remembers” when the
satellite emitted the same code.
 This way the GPS receiver “knows” the delay
ΔTTi between the emission and detection from
each GPS satellite.

ΔTTi × speed of light = Distance to satellite

 Measuring Accurate Time
✤ It is one thing to measure a time interval
precisely, but another to measure long
time intervals in the past with accuracy.

✤ Modern science has developed several

methods and accurate measurement of
time spent:
 Biology: tree rings
 Physical-chemical: 14C radioisotope
decay
 Astronomy: stellar evolution
Key Concepts:

History and Mechanics of calendars/time (origin, format, etc.).

How do we “keep” time?

Accuracy and importance of time-keeping

Why do we “keep” time?