NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: On the Mischief of Geographical Position.
From: Bill Murdoch
Date: 2002 Jan 24, 5:39 PM
From: Bill Murdoch
Date: 2002 Jan 24, 5:39 PM
I have much enjoyed this thread. It had forced me to reread and better understand "Geodesy for the Layman", Chapter 2 of the new Bowditch (especially section 204), and chapters 1 and 3 of the Admiralty Manual of Navigation v1. It has given me data on the local deflection of the vertical (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/GEOID/DEFLEC99/), an insight into the lumpiness of the surface of the sea, and an idea of the amount of error between a celestial fix and a reasonably accurate chart datum. It has corrected some mistakes in my thinking that were put there by more elementary explanations of celestial navigation that drew lines from stars to the center of a spherical earth. I do not know anywhere else that I could have had this conversation but right here in my den with you fellows. Thanks, Bill Murdoch P.S. I would be a real pain in the ass if I was a student in a USPS N course right now.