<div dir="ltr"><div>I am equally mystified.</div><div>This statement is simply wrong.<br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><br><div dir="ltr" style="margin-left:0pt"><table style="border:medium none;border-collapse:collapse"><colgroup><col width="445"><col width="275"></colgroup><tbody><tr style="height:90pt"><td style="border-color:rgb(255,255,255);border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Arnold H Rots</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span 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style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Newsletter</span></a></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 4, 2023 at 1:22 PM Steve Allen <<a href="mailto:sla@ucolick.org">sla@ucolick.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On Fri 2023-06-30T17:59:38+0200 Markus Demleitner hath writ:<br>
> * Clarified: that Besselian year is not in FITS.<br>
<br>
I am mystified at this change.<br>
<br>
Refer to the fields found in the original SAO catalog<br>
<br>
<a href="https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star-catalog/sao.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star-catalog/sao.html</a><br>
<br>
If the original SAO catalog is stored in a FITS table there<br>
will be fields<br>
<br>
RA_Epoch<br>
Dec_Epoch<br>
<br>
Those were expressed along with coordinates in the FK4 system,<br>
therefore the units of those epochs will be Besselian years.<br>
Unless I am mistaken the proper motions in the SAO catalog<br>
are also expressed as motion per Besselian year.<br>
<br>
The reason that we listed Besselian years in the FITS time paper was<br>
in order to provide a notation for a machine to have correct<br>
interpretation of the units of quantities in tables which were<br>
transcribed directly from original sources which used those units.<br>
<br>
I do not see how FITS can reject the notion that it contains<br>
the Besselian year unless it is being decided to discard much<br>
of the astronomical data from before I was born.<br>
<br>
--<br>
Steve Allen <<a href="mailto:sla@ucolick.org" target="_blank">sla@ucolick.org</a>> WGS-84 (GPS)<br>
UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB 260 Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855<br>
1156 High Street Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015<br>
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 <a href="https://www.ucolick.org/~sla/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.ucolick.org/~sla/</a> Hgt +250 m<br>
</blockquote></div>