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Re: (meteorobs) Happy New Millennium

    I know that I am late with this, but nonetheless I want to share 
something with all of you concerning our passage from the old year into the 
new.  I really wanted to send this out earlier, but unfortunately the recent 
snowy nor'easter kept me quite busy these past few days.  The passage below 
was written by an old and dear friend, Dr. Kenneth L. Franklin.  Dr. Franklin 
spent nearly 30 years as Chief Astronomer of the American Museum-Hayden 
Planetarium in New York.  Now retired and spending the winter months with his 
lovely wife Charlotte at their casita in Guadalajara, Mexico he continues to 
dispense interesting and thought-provoking items of interest.       

    As for my own thoughts on the New Year, I can only hope that it turns out 
to be an even better year for all of you as compared to the one just past.  
In the words of Jackie Gleason's alter-ego, Ralph Kramden, may 2001 be the 
year that " . . . you finally hit that high note!" 

-- joe rao

UNIQUE MOMENTS
    By Ken Franklin

    Two adjacent seconds through which we are about to live on this New Years 
Eve, are unique in themselves.  One is the last second of the last minute 
of the last hour of the last day of the last month of the last year of the 
last century of the second millennium in the calender by which we live.  The 
very next second will be the first second of the first minute of the first 
hour 
of the first day of the first month of the first year of the first century 
of the third millennium.  

    Of course, every second is unique, because it can never be recalled, 
never be relived, but no other two adjacent seconds can ever again be 
described as you have just read.
    
    But didn’t the new century and millennium begin with January 1, 2000?  
No, 
but the party went on anyway.  The confusion began when the numbering system 
for our calendar was initiated in the fourth century.  The mathematical 
concept of zero being a number did not come into the scholarship of the 
western world until about the year 1000, so there is no year zero in our 
calender.  The idea was to start the numbering of our calendar with the 
birth of Jesus, the numbers being identified with the phrase, “Anno Domini,” 
“year of our Lord.”
    
    Indeed, if the correct year had been chosen (which is now believed to be 
4 
BC), that would be the first year, but as with any baby, that first year 
must be experienced before the babe is called one year old.  In that first 
year, the baby’s age is numbered in months until twelve have elapsed.  But 
Dennis Exiguus (Dennis the Small) was a well-intentioned monk, not a 
mathematician.  Even if he had been a mathematician, he still would not have 
called it year zero.  But he could have waited until Jesus had lived that 
first year before calling it One.
    
    Now just as a baby must live that first year before we say it is one year 
old, a century cannot be called complete until 100 years have passed.  It is 
easier, perhaps, to understand the problem if we label the years as “first,” 
“second,” “ third,” “fourth,” etc., using ordinal numbers.  Then the year 
2000 should properly be called “the two thousandth year,” rather than “the 
year 2000".   Clearly, the third millennium must then begin when the last 
century of the second millennium has run its course, namely with the end of 
the 2000th year, thus with the beginning of the year 2001.  A British book 
treating this general subject with emphasis on century numbering, notes, 
“Considerable public controversy attends these occasions.”

    What about years earlier than year 1 AD?  The first year before 1 AD is 1 
BC, not zero.  (BC stands for Before Christ, but in some religions, the 
letters BCE are used, meaning, Before the Common Era.)  In astronomy, and 
other disciplines dealing in years straddling this date, 1 BC is labeled 
zero, and 2 BC becomes  -1, etc.

    The two seconds mentioned above as being unique for you are unique for 
you 
only in your time zone.  In a general way, those two seconds are unique 24 
times around the world.  The “first second . . . ” makes its appearance on 
the earth in the first time zone to the west of the International Date Line 
somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.  An hour later, these two seconds are at the 
next western time zone, and January 1now completely fills that first time 
zone.  And so it goes around the earth.  (Actually, there are more than 24 
time zones, because some countries need a slightly different convention for 
their own convenience, but 24 will suit us in this discussion.)  When the 
“first second . . . ” reaches the last time zone to the east of the date 
line, January 1 covers the entire earth.  In an hour, January 2 begins to 
push January 1off the earth.  It will take another day to do it,  so January 
1 is in existence somewhere on the earth for 48 hours.

    This fact can cause confusion for anyone dealing with the entire earth, 
or 
a large part of it, like on long range jet flights.  For this reason, such 
enterprises use Greenwich Mean Time, often called Universal Time.  Thus they 
are dealing with only a single time zone no matter where they are on the 
earth, but they then must adjust to local time when landing.

    What time is it, now?  As you look at your watch or clock, recall that 
every second is unique in its own way.  As you live each second, and 
whenever you note the time on the clock, realize that it is now--right 
now--later than it has ever been.
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