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In the mailing I sent today in the thread labelled "haversine formulae". I
have discovered an error. It may not be the only one...

In the section dealing with the use of the arc.tan function for obtaining
azimuth, there is the following paragraph-

"It's even simpler if your calculator or computer has rectangular-polar
conversion (sometimes labelled the atn2 function). In that case you put
into the y-coordinate the value (- sin hour angle) or (sin (L1 - L2)), and
into x goes cos hour angle*sin lat - cos lat*tan dec (or its equivalent).
The result emerges as a radius (which you ignore) and an angle, which is
the angle you require. All you have to do (it you're bothered to) is to add
360 if it is negative.".

The error is in the reference to (sin (L1 - L2)), which should read instead
(sin (Lo1 - Lo2)). So that paragraph should be altered to-

"It's even simpler if your calculator or computer has rectangular-polar
conversion (sometimes labelled the atn2 function). In that case you put
into the y-coordinate the value (- sin hour angle) or (sin (Lo1 - Lo2)), and
into x goes cos hour angle*sin lat - cos lat*tan dec (or its equivalent).
The result emerges as a radius (which you ignore) and an angle, which is
the angle you require. All you have to do (if you're bothered to) is to add
360 if it is negative."

Sorry about that.

George.

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george@huxtable.u-net.com
George Huxtable, 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
Tel. 01865 820222 or (int.) +44 1865 820222.
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