Time: From Earth Rotation to Atomic Physics

Dennis D. McCarthy is a former Director of Time at the United States Naval Observatory, the leading authority in the US for astronomical and timing data. He has led and been a member of various Commissions and Working Groups within the International Astronomical Union and has authored and edited numerous publications dealing with fundamental astronomy, time, and Earth orientation. P. Kenneth Seidelmann is a research professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia and is a former Director of Astrometry at the US Naval Observatory. He has led and been a member of a Division, various Commissions, and Working Groups of the International Astronomical Union, has co-authored two other books: Fundamentals of Astrometry (Cambridge, 2004) and Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics (2016), and is co-editor of the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac (2012).

Preface; 1. Time: pre-twentieth century; 2. Solar time; 3. Ephemerides; 4. Variable Earth rotation; 5. Earth orientation; 6. Ephemeris time; 7. Relativity and time; 8. Time and cosmology; 9. Dynamical and coordinate time scales; 10. Clock developments; 11. Microwave atomic clocks; 12. Optical atomic standards; 13. Definition and role of a second; 14. International Atomic Time (TAI); 15. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC); 16. Time in the solar system; 17. Time and frequency transfer; 18. Modern Earth orientation; 19. International activities; 20. Time applications; 21. Future of time keeping; Acronyms; Glossary.