NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
On polar nav
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2002 Sep 12, 08:18 +1000
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2002 Sep 12, 08:18 +1000
Am reading 'Robert E. Peary at the North Pole' A Report to the National Geographic Society by The Foundation for the Promotion of the Art of Navigation. It has, not unexpectedly, much data on the navigation involved. There is a map showing his track, which indicates he over-ran his latitude by a few miles (kept going north until he was heading south again) and the implication is that this ensured he reached the pole, given the limitations of his instruments - within about 5 miles. This raises a question, which was put as an assertion by a 'reliable source' - that the thing to do, and the thing done, was to set out from the polar camp and follow a circle around it, so that the actual pole, if a little way off, would be encompassed and any subsequent doubts about exact postion would be laid to rest. The book doesn't mention this, although the track on the map indicates Peary was off a little to one side (to the left while facing north). Some time ago there was some discussion on the list about polar navigation. Amundsen apparently camped and measured the sun's altitude thoughout the day. Although I have no reason to doubt that these measurements were taken with great care surely there would be a practical limit to just how precise a spot they could indicate. Does anybody know whether Amundsen did send out a party to circle his polar camp? I know Scott found Amundsen's black tent and accepted this as the pole, so I guess he didn't describe any circles.