NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Taking four stars for checking accuracy of fix - and "Cocked Hats"
From: Bill B
Date: 2008 Aug 04, 23:45 -0400
From: Bill B
Date: 2008 Aug 04, 23:45 -0400
Peter wrote > This has actually happened to me, on more than one occasion. While > concentrating on the seconds, the wrong minute of time gets recorded. > Or while focused on the minutes of arc displayed by the sextant, the > wrong degree is marked (blame the scribe). > > This is also another example of why it is important to THINK about > what those data points mean, rather than just feeding them into some > blind number-crunching mathematical process. Once plotted its obvious > that the point is an outlier, an apparent gross error. But before > discarding the point its worthwhile checking that it is not just a > whole minute of time out, or a whole degree. Excellent points, although it has never happened to me.Seriously, a major outlier often turns out to be exactly as you describe, a minute of time or a degree of arc off. Embarrassing, but it always feel good to *see* the relationship, ask, "What if?" and recover the data. Bill B --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
