NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2019 Mar 11, 23:33 -0400
There is a table for interpolating times for sunrise and moonrise relative to longitude and latitude, Nautical Almanac table xxxii.
Is there ever a reason or need to correct for latitude, for these bodies, if either are a part of a two-body fix? I think not but I wanted to ask.
Steve
Steve
The tables on page xxxii really have little to do with sextant sights except perhaps to check upon availability of a very low Sun or Moon. They’re not a sextant correction. They go with the times of Sun and Moonrise (and setting), which can be found on the extreme right of any daily page. If you notice, these are only given for every 10, 5, or 2 degrees of latitude depending upon your latitude. If you want the time any closer than that, you must go to page xxxii to make a correction. The fact that the tables don’t appear until page xxxii might give an indication as to how often they’re used. They were used more in WW2 in the planning of dawn attacks, moonlight low-level (the Dambusters), and the like although to be honest, the Air Almanac tended to use graphs rather than tables. Local authorities might use then for the regulation of street lighting. Aircraft operating authorities might use them to record their flying into day and night hours, which might have to comply with statutory regulations. I’m sure at least one of our contributors will come up with a good navigational use, but right now I can’t think of one. DaveP
