NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Off Center Sextant Scope Observations
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2007 Nov 22, 20:01 -0800
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2007 Nov 22, 20:01 -0800
Gary wrote:
Or, put the lower limb on the horizon near the bottom of the sextant field, as you usually do, then quickly move the sextant so you are looking through the top of the field of view and the sun should still be on the horizon. It shouldn't make any difference where they are in the field of view since both rays of light, from the sun and from the horizon, will travel through the same spot in the optics of the telescope.
gl
Greg R. wrote:
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Or, put the lower limb on the horizon near the bottom of the sextant field, as you usually do, then quickly move the sextant so you are looking through the top of the field of view and the sun should still be on the horizon. It shouldn't make any difference where they are in the field of view since both rays of light, from the sun and from the horizon, will travel through the same spot in the optics of the telescope.
gl
Greg R. wrote:
I haven't researched this in depth, but my instinct is would it really matter? Assuming you're talking about some sort of refraction error (through the sextant scope optics, not the atmosphere), since you're using the sextant's mirrors to make the lower limb tangent to the horizon wouldn't both be refracted by pretty much the same amount if viewed at that point (or really any point) of the scope?But you can probably answer you own question - how close do your observations come to a known GPS position for the same location? If you can get to within a mile or so consistently from a shore location (no matter what part of the scope you use for the sight) I'd say not to worry about it. :-)--GregR----- Original Message -----From: "Greg Rudzinski" <gregrudzinski@yahoo.com>To: "NavList" <NavList@fer3.com>Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 4:39 PMSubject: [NavList 4015] Off Center Sextant Scope Observations>
> What happens to an image of a celestial body when viewed off center in
> a sextant scope? I have a bad habit of using the lower half of the
> field of view when taking lower limb observations of the sun. I
> suspect that this increases the observed altitude slightly.
>
> Greg Rudzinski
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