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Re: Cryptic Slide Rule Formulae
From: Bill Noyce
Date: 2016 Jan 24, 17:07 -0800
From: Bill Noyce
Date: 2016 Jan 24, 17:07 -0800
Chiming in late...
#1 is the biggie: the "law of cosines" formula for altitude
#2 is a formula for azimuth that can be used once you have the altitude
#3 and #4 turn these formulas inside-out to make them useful for star-identification:
given an altitude and azimuth, they return declination and hour angle.
I was thinking that #5 looks like the simplified formula for finding sunset/sunrise,
when the center of the body is at 0 degrees altitude ignoring dip and refraction.
But I think that is just tan d * tan L, so this may be something different.
#6 and #7 didn't look familiar to me, but I think you already have answers for those.
-- Bill N