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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Average altitude of a celestial sight
From: David Fleming
Date: 2020 Aug 17, 19:06 -0700
From: David Fleming
Date: 2020 Aug 17, 19:06 -0700
An annular ring at altitude x -> x+dx has an area 2*Pi*Rsquared*cos x * dx so the area weighted
average altitude ~ Integral( x cos x dx ) 0 -> Pi/2
~ [ cos x +x sinx] evaluated at Pi/2 - evaluated at 0
~ ( Pi/2 - 1) = .57 in radians or .57 * 57.3 = 32.6 degrees
