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Re: Q: how to calculate refraction at higher altitudes on land?
From: Dov Kruger
Date: 2002 Feb 28, 13:22 -0500
From: Dov Kruger
Date: 2002 Feb 28, 13:22 -0500
Wow, that's tough. If you don't have a horizon, then your only way of telling your altitude with a sextant is finding the difference between your readings of refraction and the same readings for sea level. This won't work because the refraction really depends on air pressure, so what you are doing is subtly using your sextant as a barometer, something it is ill-equipped to do.. I suggest the following: 1. Take a barometer reading at your house, then at a nearby spot where you do know the elevation, and calculate the difference. Do this on calm days, do it a lot, and average the results. I'll bet the delta will be fairly stable. 2. Average your GPS readings over time, and try to use readings when you have many more than 4 satellites in view. Perhaps having a friend at a known elevation nearby with a GPS, communicating by phone would give you good cancellation? 3. Using a theodolite, and have a clear line of sight to something below at a known elevation, that would work. I suppose you could try that with a sextant as well. 4. Get a GPS with WAAS which will presumably cut the error by an order of magnitude. 5. In theory, if you could measure the parallax of the moon with extreme precision, you could get your height, but even without doing the math, I can see it's impossible from a practical standpoint. I have to say, I preferred my original conception of your problem, which at least had a clean solution....