| 24th of February 2023 |
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| MJD 60000! |
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Saturday, 25 February 2023 is an auspicious day as it is Modified
Julian Day number 60000. The Julian day numbering system was proposed
by Joseph Scaliger in 1583, with the Julian day being the number of days
since noon on 1 January 4713 BC, a date chosen by Scaliger to be well
before any written historical record. Julian day is regularly used by
astronomers, as it allows the time between two (sometimes widely
separated) events to be easily calculated. Modified Julian Date (MJD)
was a simplification introduced by the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory in 1957 in the early days of computers, as it required
fewer bits to store than the full Julian Date. MJD is simply the Julian Date
minus 2400000.5, and has an effective starting point, MJD 0, of
midnight on November 17, 1858.
Saturday, 25 February 2023 is also the date of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. The theme for the Sydney Mardi Gras and Sydney WorldPride festival is GATHER, DREAM, AMPLIFY, which will be reflected in the traditional parade along Oxford Street. The parade will feature over 200 floats and 12,500 marchers, including a team from CSIRO. |