NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Night moon sights
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2004 Jan 31, 06:05 +1100
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2004 Jan 31, 06:05 +1100
But don't the waves right up to the horizon also
reflect light? Remember that this shimmer of reflected light is most noticeable
when the sea is particularly calm, so at about 3nm away the wave height should
be negligible?
----- Original Message -----From: Frank Reed
Yes, I agree. Let's see... I think the principle is fairly simple. The reflection of the Moon's light is necessarily coming from a point down inside the trough of each wave (that's the only way to get "angle of incidence = angle of reflection"). So at a certain distance away from the observer, the crest of the wave in front will block the reflected ray from the trough behind it. The shimmering light beneath the Moon should stop well in advance of the true horizon --which is just what we observe.
