NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: 1984 Bowditch question
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2016 Jul 25, 17:53 -0700
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2016 Jul 25, 17:53 -0700
You'll note that the Navigator's long-form equation for dip short includes this explanation: "β0 is a parameter (0.8321) which characterizes terrestrial refraction". This is the spot where science and the editors of the Navigator part company. It makes no sense to quote this figure to four decimal places, and normal, daily variations in this parameter are on the order of a few percent. This applies to the various other equations which include parameters based on terrestrial refraction. So beware...
Frank Reed
