NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Attempting to decipher a "time sight"
From: Ed Popko
Date: 2016 May 31, 09:12 -0700
From: Ed Popko
Date: 2016 May 31, 09:12 -0700
Frank,
In reading and runcomputing Hart's sight data with tables and calculator, there is always the stumbling point of how ship's time was recorded in th 19th c. Getting t and half-sums seem straight forward but the final application of this angle (converted to time) and finally LAT is always hit or miss.
For example, was 'high noon' ship's time 12:00 or 00:00 start of next day. I can usually recreate their Time Sight calculations but I typically have to cycle through a few guesses as to how ship's time was kept.
What were the practices during the 19th C and what are the tip offs when you look at old nav scribbles?
Ed Popko
