NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Azimuth Formula Questions
From: Bill B
Date: 2005 Oct 31, 21:47 -0500
From: Bill B
Date: 2005 Oct 31, 21:47 -0500
George wrote: > Anyway, it's becoming clearer how that discrepancy between the two methods > arises, thanks to Paul. The Meeus formula, with its sign conventions chosen > as stated, and its straighforward quadrant-adjustment, seems much more > simple, and demands less in the way of mental contortion. I wonder if > others agree. No disagreement from me. If I recall, this all started with a question I had regarding the pros and cons of George's formula vs. how the 229 folks claim they calculate Z and Zn. Now I know, thanks to George's insights. And as usually, gained more knowledge than I bargained for. Why mess with a longer formula that has to many qualifiers once calculated? I do maintain tabular methods are great for learning and backup. I spent many hours inspecting the tables and began to see wonderful patterns emerging as most of the spherical-trig math was predigested for me. And I still love David Burch's slick trick for using the 229 tables to find the real slope when plotting data points. LMS my foot.Bill