[time-nuts] Re: Ship's clocks @ The Royal Society

[Steve Allen]

On Sat 2023-07-01T14:48:22-0700 Brooke Clarke via time-nuts hath writ:
> It's my understanding that the clock would need to be regulated as to it's
> rate because of local gravity and set to the correct time prior to making
> Venus/Sun transit measurements.  All that done by astronomy I'm guessing
> this would be made more fool proof if sidereal time was used.

The clock would not need to be regulated any more than a chronometer
on board a ship was regulated.  Through the end of the 20th century
the Navy manuals for Quartermaster said that a ship's chronometer is
set at the maintenance shop before being carried to the ship and
it is never reset.  The quartermaster must keep a log of how much
the chronometer deviates from true time.

For the timing of the transit the clock only needed to be regular, not
to be correct.  The logs of the observations before and after would
allow the transit contact times to be determined by interpolation
using the clock and the logs of how far off that clock was in the days
before and after the transit.

--
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