On Fri 2020-11-13T15:51:49-0800 Paul Eggert hath writ:
It would hardly be worth the trouble, I'd think. It may well make sense, though, for some astronomical applications to do the conversion "correctly", when interpreting historical astronomical data.
For the past 25 years the range residuals to Mars fall inside an envelope 2 meters big. Similarly tight ranges apply for every other planet that has had an orbiter or lander. Trying to construct an epemeris by adding in older observations does not improve the result, it only adds noise. Not even for astronomical purposes is the exact nature of the time around 1970/1972 relevant. -- Steve Allen <sla@ucolick.org> WGS-84 (GPS) UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB 260 Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855 1156 High Street Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015 Santa Cruz, CA 95064 https://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m