NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sextant accuracy (was : Plumb-line horizon vs. geocentric horizon)
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2005 Feb 23, 03:11 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2005 Feb 23, 03:11 EST
"Somehow the discussion has remained focused primarily on
the eye, not the system; which includes the brain."
the eye, not the system; which includes the brain."
Sure, but it has to start there. Diffraction places a severe limit on the
data being sent to the brain. And the density of the detector array (the cones
in the fovea) places another limit. The brain is apparently able to detect some
image "defects" at significantly finer resolution (see the stuff on "vernier
acuity"), and the mechanism for this is apparently unclear.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
