NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Polaris in daytime
From: Magnus Sjoquist
Date: 2012 Jan 25, 15:53 +0100
From: Magnus Sjoquist
Date: 2012 Jan 25, 15:53 +0100
I have tried a couple of times, but failed (normal 6x scope).
Sirius can be picked up under good conditions. I have seen Vega during daylight. Polaris never.
/Magnus
----Ursprungligt meddelande----
Från: geoffreykolbe@compuserve.com
Datum: 2012-01-25 15:31
Till: <NavList@fer3.com>
Ärende: [NavList] Polaris in daytime
Surveyors often need to find true North to lay out the initial
reference line off which a building is measured. These days, with GPS
gizmos, there is no difficulty in this. But pre-GPS, true North was
found by taking a timed azimuth measurement of the sun, or of Polaris
which, the text books say, is visible during the day using the
average theodolite 30x scope.
When I was in Egypt a few years ago doing an experiment on pyramid
alignment, I tried to find Polaris using my theodolite. I had taken
azimuth measurements off the sun, so I knew where to look, but I
never saw nothing. Polaris is too high in these latitudes (Scotland)
to see with a theodolite, so I am not able to try here.
Has anyone in lower latitudes managed to see Polaris in the daytime
through their sextant telescope, or through any other telescope? I
was wondering how big a telescope you need to see Polaris in the daytime.
Thanks
Geoffrey Kolbe
