NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2024 Sep 30, 12:13 -0700
Frank
On the position in space from angular measurements, you’ll have noted I stole the idea from GNSSs and the way they correct the 10cent clock in your GNSS receiver. The difference is, of course, each GNSS pseudo-range describes a sphere of radius equal to the receiver’s range from the satellite, whereas our interstellar angles only describe a ring in space centred halfway along the line joining the two distant stars. The thing is, will these four or more rings ever touch? We’ll they must touch at least once, and that is at the spot you measured the angles from. Why four or more rings? Well, I was hoping that some matrices literate person might work out a way of averaging out the error in your sextant. Why an exact time? Well, I was imagining the planet you were on might be rotating and also have an orbit although, when you come to think of it, perhaps the interstellar distances involved are so great that it doesn’t matter. I realise this brilliant idea might have commercial value, so any cash gained can go towards the cost of running NavList. DaveP
