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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Errors in Cotter's book, updated
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2003 Jan 9, 00:37 -0500
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2003 Jan 9, 00:37 -0500
George, Thank you once again for explaining another point very clearly. Regarding your medal, I was attempting to present you with what I would covet as an award, but fear it came across too baldly, slipping out before the final polish was applied. I very much enjoy the humour in your posts, except perhaps when they're aimed at me. I can see I hashed the analysis, but the intention was accurate. In noon sights, would one ever correct for third-order effects such as acceleration or decceleration in the declination, say around the middle of May? These would be much smaller than your 15-second correction, mis-shaping your parabola around noon but not changing the point of inflexion unless you tried to measure it with only two readings. Compared to clock errors in the old days, the 15-second correction due to the change in the declination doesn't sound like a major one. Thanks, Fred -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick V. Hebard, PhD Email: mailto:Fred@acf.org Staff Pathologist, Meadowview Research Farms Web: http://www.acf.org American Chestnut Foundation Phone: (276) 944-4631 14005 Glenbrook Ave. Fax: (276) 944-0934 Meadowview, VA 24361
