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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: sight reduction with GPS receiver
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Mar 22, 00:22 +0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Mar 22, 00:22 +0000
Herbert Prinz maintains that " new (or new-ish) GPS receivers >> calculate geodesics on the Earth as shortest distance arcs on the >> ellipsoid." I've just checked my (French) MLR receiver, for the distance between two waypoints, one at the North Pole, the other at lat 45deg North. The answer (given only to the nearest mile) is 2711 nautical miles, compared with 2700 which would be the result if pure spherical geometry were assumed. So I conclude that the MLR instrument does allow for the shape of the ellipsoid, as Herbert suggested. George ================================================================ contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. ================================================================
