NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Accuracy of sextant observations at sea
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2010 Sep 23, 13:19 -0700
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2010 Sep 23, 13:19 -0700
Thanks for that document, it made interesting reading. I noticed that the σ of all the data was 1.53, almost exactly the same as mine which was 1.433. ( I omitted the moonlight observations and the naked eye sunrise observations from my σ since those were not normal types of sights.) gl On 9/23/2010 8:15 AM, George Huxtable wrote: > John Brown offereed this following useful comment, about Gary's recent > posting. > > Subject: [NavList] Re: Accuracy of sextant observations at sea > > > These seem to be very good results. My 1963 edition of Burton's Tables has > this to say in the first paragraph of the Notes: > > "An extensive investigation into the degree of accuracy normally obtained > in the practice of astronomical position-finding at sea has indicated that > the average inaccuracy in a position line produced by the average observer > is 0'.7, and that one in twenty such position lines may be as much as 3'.0 > in error." > > ====================== > > I saw that Burton's tables offers this footnote, about that comment.- > > See "The accuracy of Astronomical Observations at Sea", Journal of the > Institute of Navigation, vol X, No 3, July 1957. > > It's the report of a working party, chaired by Don Sabler, who headed the > Almanac Office. They sent out thousands of questionnaires to navigators, > and analysed the answers that came back. > > It adds up to 26 pages, but only 1.4 MB in a .pdf file. If you find it of > interest, here it is, attached.. > > George > > contact George Huxtable, at george{at}hux.me.uk > or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) > or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.