NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: [Fwd: lunars hard to shoot?]
From: Michael Wescott
Date: 2000 Sep 11, 2:23 PM
From: Michael Wescott
Date: 2000 Sep 11, 2:23 PM
> > In practice, this is practical on ships and even small boats. Joshua Slocum > > (the first around alone sailor) seems to have preferred Lunars to keeping his > > Chronometer on time. The drawbacks are in the difficulties involved with taking > > three "simultaneous" sights (two altitudes and the angle between them) and in > > the calculations involved to reduce the sights. > > Actually, you don't need to shoot the altitudes. They are only used to provide > corrections for reducing the angle between. You can use calculated altitudes and > work back to the apparent altitudes, which then provides you with corrections you > need to reduce the sight. You need at least two altitudes for a position. -- Mike Wescott wescott@conterra.com