[time-nuts] How many seconds in a year?

[Neville Michie]

I have been thinking about my problem, the major part of the problem  
is finding the right question.
If leap seconds are applied to keep the meanderings of the planet in  
phase with our mean time
clocks, then what about our leap year days which are applied to keep  
the seasons in phase with our
calendars? Applying a whole day every so many years may keep the  
civil authorities happy,
but when we all celebrate a new year we are not counting down the  
completion of a planetary cycle
but the civil approximation to a new year.
Now, having thought about it a bit more, the year is the completing  
of an orbit of our elliptical orbit around the sun.
The start and finish of an orbit is defined by the inclined axis of  
rotation of the Earth crossing the plane of its orbit which is what  
causes the seasons.
The elliptical orbit is moving, hence the precession of the  
equinoxes. As we can not measure a year
by looking at a particular star crossing our meridian,
we measure the year by watching a fictitious star crossing our  
meridian. This star (which used to be at the first point of Aries
on the vernal equinox) is slowly orbiting around our solar system as  
our tilted ecliptic precesses.

Which now gets me back to my question. If I want to make a clock that  
chimes once per solar year when we have completed a cycle it will  
count down a
number of seconds then chime. So I want to know the number of seconds  
in a Mean Year, accurate enough so that in 200 years time
it will still be right.
It should be fun to see the time the new year really starts as we  
head around the orbit again. The time will not be midnight
but will jump around in the day with different years.
There are so many interference's in time keeping by accountants and  
politicians I was thinking of making a clock that
showed real time as determined by sun and stars.
Although that brings up the equation of time, and mean time is so  
convenient if you have an atomic clock.
I might just try to make a clock that shows the mediaeval "Italian  
Hours", where every day has 24 hours with sunrise at 6 AM with sunset  
at 6PM.
The old clocks had dials marked so that you read off the elastic  
Italian hours.
cheers, Neville Michie

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