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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Classification of the methods for clearing the Lunar Distances
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2003 Apr 11, 04:36 +0000
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2003 Apr 11, 04:36 +0000
Fred Hebard wrote: > I believe the "short" vs "rigorous" solutions to which Jan refers are > based on whether the relevant equations are solved explicitly rather > than by some approximation to the solution, such as substitution of the > first term of a Taylor series for a sine function. In this sense, > couldn't St. Hilaire's method be either short or rigorous depending on > how one determines Hc? The modern intercept method cannot be classified as a rigorous solution to the combined altitude problem, because the true position (the intersection of the two circles of equal altitude) is approximated by the intersection of two tangents to these circles. The error depends on how close the assumed position is to the true position. As for the original Marcq St Hilaire method, the inventor called it "methode du point rapproche", which says it all. Best regards Herbert Prinz