How the Moon Affects Time on Earth

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We take it for granted that a day is twenty-four hours. Indeed, our body’s circadian rhythm is finally tuned to cope with a 24-hour-day. However, a day on Earth was not always 24 hours long.

In the early days of the Earth, a day was incredibly short – just five hours long, but by the time of the Jurassic period,  when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a day had lengthened to about 22.5 hours.

Of course now, a day is 24-hours and has been since humans evolved, but what has caused this gradual lengthening. The answer lies with the Moon.

The moon used to be a lot closer to the Earth and the effect of its gravity was therefore, a lot stronger. As the moon drives tidal systems, these were a lot stronger in the early days of the Earth, and the consequence was that the Earth’s spin slowed, the tugging of the moon’s gravity and tidal forces on the Earth, acing like a brake on the rotation of the planet.

Now the moon is farther away, and is continuing to move away even farther, however the effect of the moon is still felt on Earth, with a consequence that Earth’s day is still slowing down, albeit minutely.

With modern atomic clocks, it is now possible to account for this slowing and the global timescale used by most technologies to ensure time synchronisation, UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), has to account for this gradual slowing, otherwise, because of the extreme accuracy of atomic clocks, eventually day would slip into night as the Earth slowed and we didn’t adjust our clocks.

Because of this, once or twice a year, an extra second is added to the global timescale. These leap-seconds, as they are known, have been added since the 1970’s when UTC was first developed.

For many modern technologies where millisecond accuracy is required, this can cause problems. Fortunately, with NTP time servers (Network Time Protocol) these leap seconds are accounted for automatically, so any technologies hooked up to an NTP server need not worry about this discrepancy.

NTP servers are used by time sensitive technology and computer networks worldwide to ensure precise and accurate time, all the time, regardless of what the heavenly bodies are doing.

Press Release: Galleon Systems Launch New Website

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Atomic clock and NTP server specialists, Galleon Systems, have relaunched their website providing an improved platform to showcase their wide range of time synchronisation and network time server products.

Galleon Systems, who have been providing atomic clock and time server products to industry and commerce for over a decade, have redesigned their website to ensure the company continues to be world leaders in providing accurate, secure and reliable time synchronisation products.

With detailed descriptions of their product range, new product pictures and a revamped menu system to provided better functionality and user experience, the new website includes all of Galleons extensive range of NTP server systems (Network Time Protocol) and atomic clock synchronisation products.

Time servers from Galleon Systems are accurate to within a fraction of a second and are a secure and reliable method of getting a source of atomic clock time for computer networks and technological applications.

Using either GPS or the UKs MSF radio signal (DSF in Europe WWVB in the USA), time servers from Galleon Systems can keep hundreds of devices on a network accurate to within a few milliseconds of the international timescale UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

Galleon Systems product range includes a variety of NTP time servers that can receive either GPS or radio referenced signals, dual systems that can receive both, simple radio controlled atomic clock servers, and a range of large network digital and analogue wall clocks.

Manufactured in the UK, Galleon Systems have a wide range of NTP and time synchronisation devices used worldwide by thousands of organizations who need accurate, reliable and precise time. For more information please visit their new website: www.galsys.co.uk

Mechanisms of Time History of Chronological Devices

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Nearly every device seems to have a clock attached to it these days. Computers, mobile phones and all the other gadgets we use are all good sources of time. Ensuring that no matter where you are a clock is never that far away – but it wasn’t always this way.

Clock making, in Europe, started around the fourteenth century when the first simple mechanical clocks were developed. These early devices were not very accurate, losing perhaps up to half an hour a day, but with the development of pendulums these devices became increasingly more accurate.

However, the first mechanic al clocks were not the first mechanical devices that could tell and predict time. Indeed, it seems Europeans were over fifteen hundred years late with their development of gears, cogs and mechanical clocks, as the ancients had long ago got there first.

Early in the twentieth century a brass machine was discovered in a shipwreck (Antikythera wreck) off Greece, which was a device as complex as any clock made in Europe up in the mediaeval period. While the Antikythera mechanism is not strictly a clock – it was designed to predict the orbit of planets and seasons, solar eclipses and even the ancient Olympic Games – but is just as precise and complicated as Swiss clocks manufactured in Europe in the nineteenth century.

While Europeans had to relearn the manufacture of such precise machines, clock making has moved on dramatically since then. In the last hundred or so years we have seen the emergence of electronic clocks, using crystals such as quartz to keep time, to the emergence of atomic clocks that use the resonance of atoms.

Atomic clocks are so accurate they won’t drift by even a second in a hundred thousand years which is phenomenal when you consider that even quartz digital clocks will drift several seconds n a day.

While few people will have ever seen an atomic clock as they are bulky and complicated devices that require teams of people to keep them operational, they still govern our lives.

Much of the technologies we are familiar with such as the internet and mobile phone networks, are all governed by atomic clocks. NTP time servers (Network Time Protocol) are used to receive atomic clock signals often broadcast by large physics laboratories or from the GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite signals.

NTP servers then distribute the time around a computer network adjusting the system clocks on individual machines to ensure they are accurate. Typically, a network of hundreds and even thousands of machines can be kept synchronised together to an atomic clock time source using a single NTP time server, and keep them accurate to within a few milliseconds of each other (few thousandths of a second).

UTC One Time to Rule Them All

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In a global economy time has become a more crucial than ever before. As people across the globe, communicate, conference and buy and sell from each other, being aware of the each other’s time is vital for conducting business successfully.

And with the internet, global communication and time awareness are even more important as computers require a source of time for nearly all their applications and processes. The difficulty with computer communication, however, is that if different machines are running different times, all sorts of errors can occur. Data can get lost, errors fail to log; the system can become unsecure, unstable and unreliable.

Time synchronisation for computer networks communicating with each other is, therefore, essential – but how is it achieved when different networks are in different time-zones?

The answer lies with Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) an international time-zones developed in the 1970’2 that is based on accurate atomic clocks.  UTC is set the same the world over, with no accounting for time-zones so the time on a network in the UK – will be identical to the network time in the USA.

UTC time on a computer network is also kept synchronised through the use of NTP (Network Time Protocol) and an NTP server.  NTP ensures all devices on a networked system have exactly the right time as different computer clocks will drift at varying rates – even if the machines are identical.

While UTC makes no accounting for time-zones system clocks can still be set to the local time-zone but the applications and functions of a computer will use UTC.

UTC time is delivered to computer networks through a variety of sources: radio signals, the GPS signal, or across the internet (although the accuracy of internet time is debatable). Most computer networks have a NTP time server somewhere in their server room which will receive the time signal and distribute it through the network ensuring all machines are within a few milliseconds of UTC and that the time on your network corresponds to every other UTC network on the globe.

Origin of Synchronisation (Part 2)

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Continued…

Most towns and cities would have a main clock, such as Big Ben in London, and for those living near-by, it was fairly easy to look out the window and adjust the office or factory clock to ensure synchronicity; however, for those not in view of these tower clocks, other systems were used.

Commonly, somebody with a pocket watch would set the time by the tower clock in the morning and then go around businesses and for a small fee, let people know exactly what the time was, thus enabling them to adjust the office or factory clock to suit.

When, however, the railways began, and timetables became important it was clear a more accurate method of time keeping was needed, and it was then that the first official time-scale was developed.

As clocks were still mechanical, and therefore inaccurate and prone to drift, society again turned to that more accurate chronometer, the sun.

It was decided that when the sun was directly above a certain location, that would signal noon on this new time-scale. The location: Greenwich, in London, and the time-scale, originally called railway time, eventually became Greenwich Meantime (GMT), a time-scale that was used until the 1970’s.

Now of course, with atomic clocks, time is based on an international time-scale UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) although its origins are still based on GMT and often UTC is still referred to as GMT.

Now with the advent of international trade and global computer networks, UTC is used as the basis of nearly all international time. Computer networks deploy NTP servers to ensure that the time on their networks are accurate, often to a thousandth of a second to UTC, which means all around the world computers are ticking with the same accurate time – whether it is in London, Paris, or New York, UTC is used to ensure that computers everywhere can accurately communicate with each other, preventing the errors that poor time synchronisation can cause.

Finding an Online NTP Time Source

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Finding a source of time to synchronise a computer network to can be a challenge as there are a myriad of online time sources, all pertaining to be accurate and reliable; however, the truth can be rather different with many online sources either in too much demand, too far away or inaccurate.

NTP (Network Time Protocol) requires a source of UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time) which is kept true by atomic clocks. Online time sources are not themselves atomic clocks but NTP server devices that receive the time from an atomic clock which is then relayed to the devices that connect to the online time server.

There are two types of online time server: stratum 1 devices – devices that receive the time directly from an atomic clock, either using GPS or a radio reference signal. Stratum 2 devices  on the other hand are one step further away in that they are receive their time from a stratum 1 time server.

Because of demand, finding an online stratum 1 time server is next to impossible, and those that do take request usually do so under a subscription, which leaves the only choice for most people being a stratum 2 device.

There are plenty of resources on the internet that provide locations for online time servers.

But there are drawbacks to using such devices; firstly, online stratum 2 time sources can’t be guaranteed and several surveys taken have found that the reliability and accuracy of many of them can’t be taken for granted.  Secondly, online sources of time require an open firewall port which can be manipulated by malicious bots or users – leading to security risks.

A far better solution for most networks is to install your own stratum 1 NTP server. These time server devices sync to atomic clocks outside the firewall (using GPS or radio signals) and therefore are not security risks. They are also accurate to a few milliseconds ensuring the network will always be accurate to UTC.

From Pennies to NTP Servers the Intricacies of Keeping Time

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Keeping accurate time is an essential aspect of our day to day lives. Nearly everything we do is reliant on time from getting up for work in the morning to arranging meetings, nights out or just when it’s time for dinner.

Most of us carry some kind of clock or watch with us but these timepieces are prone to drift which is why most people regularly use another clock of device to set their time too.

In London, by far the most common timepiece that people use to set their watches too is Big Ben. This world famous clock can be seen for miles, which is why so many Londoners use it to ensure their watches and clocks are accurate – but have you ever wondered how Big Ben keeps itself accurate?

Well the unlikely truth lies in a pile of old coins. Big Ben’s clock mechanism uses a pendulum but for fine tuning and ensuring accuracy a small pile of gold coins resting on the top of the pendulum.  If just one coin is removed then the clock’s speed will change by nearly half a second

Ensuring accuracy on a computer network is far less archaic. All computer networks need to run accurate and synchronised time as computers too are completely reliant on knowing the time.

Fortunately, NTP time servers are designed to accurately and reliably keep entire computer networks synchronised. NTP (Network Time Protocol) is a software protocol designed to keep networks accurate and it works by using a single time source that it uses to correct drift on

Most network operators synchronise their computers to a form of UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time) as this is governed by atomic clocks (highly accurate timepieces that never drift – not for several thousand years, anyway).

A source of atomic clock time can be received by a NTP server by using either GPS satellite (Global Positioning System) signals or radio frequencies broadcast by national physics laboratories.

NTP servers ensure that computer networks all across the globe are synchronised, accurate and reliable.

Using Atomic Clock Time Signals

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Accuracy is becoming more and more relevant as technology becomes increasingly important to the functioning of our everyday lives. And as our economies become more reliant on the global marketplace, accuracy and synchronisation of time is very important.

Computers seem to control much our daily lives and time is essential for the modern computer network infrastructure. Timestamps ensure actions are carried out by computers and are the only point of reference IT systems have for error checking, debugging and logging. A problem with the time on a computer network and it could lead to data getting lost, transactions failing and security issues.

Synchronisation on a network and synchronisation with another network that you communicate with are essential to prevent the above mentioned errors. But when it comes to communicating with networks across the globe things can be even trickier as the time on the other-side of the world is obviously different as you pass each time-zone.

To counter this, a global timescale based on atomic clock time was devised. UTC – Coordinated Universal Time – does away with time-zones enabling all networks across the globe to use the same time source – ensuring that computers, no matter where they are in the world, are synchronised together.

To synchronise a computer network, UTC is distributed using the time synchronisation software NTP (Network Time Protocol). The only complication is receiving a source of UTC time as it is generated by atomic clocks which are multi-million dollar systems that are not available for mass use.

Fortunately, signals from atomic clocks can be received using a NTP time server. These devices can receive radio transmissions that are broadcast from physic laboratories which can be used as a source of time to synchronise an entire network of computers to.

Other NTP time servers use the signals beamed from GPS satellites as a source of time. The positioning information in these signals is actually a time signal generated by atomic clocks onboard the satellites (which is then triangulated by the GPS receivers).

Whether it’s a radio referenced NTP server or a GPS time server – an entire network of hundreds, and even thousands of machines can be synchronised together.

Time Synchronisation Getting it Right

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Time is essential for computers, networks and technology. It is the only reference technology has to ascertain if a task has happened or is due to take place. As time, in the from of timestamps, is so important for technology, when there is uncertainty over time, due to different devices on a network having different times, it can cause untold errors.

The problem with time in computing is that all devices, from routers to desktop PCs, have their own onboard timepiece that governs the system clocks. These system clocks are just normal electronic oscillators, they type commonly found in battery powered watches, and while these are adequate for humans to tell the time, the drifting of these clocks can see devices on a network, seconds and even minutes out of sync.

There are two rules for time synchronisation:

  • All devices on a network should be synchronised together
  • The network should be synchronised to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)

 

NTP

To synchronise a network you need to make use of Network Time Protocol (NTP). NTP is designed for accurate network time synchronisation.  IT works by using a single source of time which it then distributes it to all devices on the NTP network.

NTP continually checks the devices for any drift and then adjusts to ensure the entire network is within a few milliseconds of the reference time.

UTC

Coordinated Universal Time is a global timescale that is kept true by atomic clocks. By synchronising a network to UTC you are in effect ensuring your network is synchronised to every other UTC network on the planet.

Using UTC as a reference source is a simple affair too. NTP time servers are the best way to find a secure source of UTC time. They use either GPS (Global Positioning System) as a source of this atomic clock time or specialist radio signals keeping the UTC time source external to the network for security reasons.

A single NTP server can synchronise a network of hundreds and even thousands of devices ensuring the entire network is to within a few milliseconds of UTC.

Using Atomic Clocks for Time Synchronisation

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The atomic clock is unrivalled in its chronological accuracy. No other method of maintaining time comes close to the precision of an atomic clock. These ultra-precise devices can keep time for thousands of years without losing a second in drift – in comparison to electronic clocks, perhaps the next most accurate devices, which can drift up to a second a day.

Atomic clocks are not practical devices to have around though. They use advanced technologies such as super-coolant liquids, lasers and vacuums – they also require a team of skilled technicians to keep the clocks running.

Atomic clocks are deployed in some technologies. The Global Positioning System (GPS) relies on atomic clocks that operate onboard the unmanned orbiting satellites. These are crucial for working out accurate distances. Because of the speed of light that the signals travel, a one second inaccuracy in any GPS atomic clock would lead to positing information being out by thousands of kilometres – but the actual accuracy of GPS is within a few metres.

While these wholly accurate and precise instruments for measuring time are unparalleled and the expensive of running such devices is unobtainable to most people, synchronising your technology to an atomic clock, in actual fact, is relatively simple.

The atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites are easily utilised to synchronise many technologies to. The signals that are used to provide positioning information can also be used as a source of atomic clock time.

The simplest way to receive these signals is to use a GPS NTP server (Network Time Protocol). These NTP servers use the atomic clock time signal from the GPS satellites as a reference time, the protocol NTP is then used to distribute this time around a network, checking each device with the GPS time and adjusting to ensure accuracy.

Entire computer networks can be synchronised to the GPS atomic clock time by using just one NTP GPS server, ensuring that all devices are within milliseconds of the same time.