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While in nav. classes met a chap who encouraged me (and others) to meet
him at a place high on the cliffs above Bondi Beach. There, for years,
he has practised making observations. Still join him there occasionally,
usually at dusk, its as much a social occasion as anything else,
especially if we can encourage other sextant users to join us. Our
experience is that it is rare for our known position (it should be, we
lean up against a survey plinth!) to be outside our LOPs, and that is
despite having a little less than 180� of the horizon to use.

Now I can foresee some objections to anyone (and especially firm
unbelievers) taking this on face value, so encourage you all to do the
same thing. Assume that most people on this list have access to a
coastline, perhaps a better, more protruding point than us (and know
that some have adapted sump oil and even more exotic substances to take
the place of an horizon) and its good practise in any case, learning to
know the sky and planets - if, like us, you are near an airport, just
beware of moving targets!

It has the great advantages of a stable platform and a known DR which is
the actual position. A bonus for me was learning that there is a small
systematic error somewhere in my system - for some reason it puts me a
little to the south east more often than mere chance.

Try it - often (the good weather is returning to the northern hemishere)
and let us all know your results.

   

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