NavList:

Thanks Modris, Frank and David for the replies to my message.

To Modris: I can see that being inland doesn't need to get in the way of pursuing my interest in C.N.

To David: I used 2 additional filters when viewing the sun through the Davis 25 sextant - one  made from the eye protection given after a dilated eye exam and I was wearing dark glasses with UV coatings. Hopefully that was sufficient.

To Frank: I had forgotten the GPS Anti-Spoof app on my phone. Thanks for reminding me.

I cleared my lunar and checked it several times. The reason that I checked it was because my cleared LD was exactly the same as the result on Frank's online lunar analyzer. It must have been beginner's luck. Maybe all of the reasons that I shouldn't have gotten a good result (sextant mirrors not adjusted recently, only one LD taken, plastic sextant used, low moon altitude, abberation, etc.) all summed to zero. My cleared LD was 69° 16.5'. The cleared LD on Frank's app was 69° 16.5' and the true LD was 69° 16.0'. I got the HP and the sun and moon S.D.'s from the N.A. I used Stellarium for the sun and moon altitudes. I wondered if my results were so close due entering my exact lat/long into Frank's app. I cleared the lat/long information from the app and got quite different results. When clearing my LD, I don't see where I needed to know a lat/long or DR position. Stellarium does know my lat/long - maybe the altitudes I got from there depended on my location. But I wouldn't need to know my location if I had obtained my altitudes with a sextant.

To some extent I feel that I cleared my LD just by going through the steps that I learned in Frank's class without understanding some of the equations and reasoning behind the process. I will try to address my questions in subsequent posts and hopefully get to a point where I can explain LD's to someone else.