Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: It Works.
    From: Bill Noyce
    Date: 2002 Apr 3, 10:46 -0500

    George Huxtable says
    
    > 1. For a lunar that uses altitudes that are calculated rather than
    > measured, it is necessary to make a measurement for local apparent time.
    > This should be done within a day or so of the moment of taking the lunar,
    > depending on how well the timepiece can be trusted over such a period.
    > :
    > 4. The local apparent time, so derived, and corrected by the equation of
    > time to give local mean time, can be checked against the ship's timepiece,
    > and can now be used with the Almanac to establish precise altitudes for
    > both the bodies used in a lunar observation, even though the GMT and the
    > longitude are both still uncertain.
    
    I don't think you need to make any special "local apparent time"
    observations or calculations.  Assuming the navigator has been
    using celestial observations all along, but has an incorrect clock,
    he will have determined a celestial "fix" whose longitude is off by
    almost exactly 15' for every minute of time error.  These two errors
    will cancel out to reduce errors in computed altitudes, the same way
    as Bruce Stark's procedure using local time.  The remaining errors
    are come from the change in declination (pretty fast for the moon),
    and the difference in rate of change of GHA between the sun, planets,
    and stars.
    
    I think, George, that if you go back to your example where you assumed
    the watch was 30 minutes fast, and simply change the assumed longitude
    to be 7.5 degrees east of the true position, then you'll come up with
    results that match Bruce's.  This assumed longitude is what a navigator
    would have concluded with traditional celestial observations, if he
    were misled by a watch that is 30 minutes fast.
    
    
    

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site