NavList:

Okay, so I am a geek, teach in an engineering school and live in silicon Valley, but here is one to try...

The iPhone 5 has a nifty level built into it's compass app, and one can choose among several level apps for the iPad. I haven't tried to measure their accuracy, but a simple test (slide a sheet under the paper of the iphone/pad) suggests that it is pretty sensitive.

Soooo... I tried getting a sight this eve as the late afternoon sun was sailing among the clouds. My iPhone was a challenge owing to its small screen size, and the plastic screen protector on top of the glass contributed mightily to the distortion. No screen protector on the iPad though, and its large surface area made a fine target! Still... it is hardly a first surface mirros and thus the sun's image is kind of distorted. Well, actually quite distorted, but not so horrible that it is a lost cause. By moving the image around the surface, I occasionally even got a vaguely round disk!

But despite the distortion, the iPhone 5 is actually an extraordinary artificial horizon. At the bottom of the compass screen is a lat/long readout -- it thus provides a reliable position even when the skies are clouded over. Now, what other AH can claim that level of accuracy! ;-)

-p

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