NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Distance off useing a hand held compass
From: Dave Weilacher
Date: 2003 Mar 25, 12:55 -0500
From: Dave Weilacher
Date: 2003 Mar 25, 12:55 -0500
This is similar to estimating distance by using double the angle off the bow. Sailing along the coast with a compass and speedlog only. You sight an object that is 30 degrees relative to the bow. You are making 5 knots good. You wait until the same object is 60 degrees off the bow. It took 12 minutes from when it was at 30 until it reached 60. Since you traveled 1nm in 12 minutes, you can reasonably estimate that you are 1nm away from the object. -------Original Message------- From: "Royer, Doug"Sent: 03/25/03 03:06 PM To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Distance off useing a hand held compass > > The following is a proceedure to find or estimate the distance off an object using a handheld compass.This is a quick dirty way of finding distance when other means are unavailiable.For you who are concerned with great accuracy measurements just disreguard the following.A higher quality sighting compass may yield more accurate results.This is a good method for getting the distance off of an object that is hard to reach due to terrain. o . | | | | d A | B a.-------------------------------.b ref. d = distance to be calculated A = greater value of measured bearing B = lesser value of measured bearing a = 1st point of referance distance b = 2nd point of referance distance ref = measured referance distance d = (tan(90-(A -B))) x ref. It is imperative to lay the ref. line perpendicular to the object for more accurate results. 1. Lay out referance line.I use a 10 meter cord. 2. Take a compass bearing from a to o. 3. Walk to the end of the ref. line and take the bearing b to o 4. Subtract the larger bearing from the smaller bearing.If B is larger than A switch positions in the equation. 5. Work the equation and the result will be the distance off the object. Hopefully this diagram will be transmitted better than the one yesterday.In fact if this diagram goes through it was basically the same set-up as yesterday's diagram. > Dave Weilacher .US Coast Guard licensed captain . #889968 .ASA instructor evaluator and celestial . navigation instructor #990800 .IBM AS400 RPG contract programmer