NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Curve fitting for noon Sun
From: David Fleming
Date: 2020 Jan 12, 16:19 -0800
From: David Fleming
Date: 2020 Jan 12, 16:19 -0800
Like Brad said, just sketch a smooth curve through your points. Ignore points that lie further from a smooth curve.
The curve is parabolic close to peak less so if far from the peak in time. Ex meridian sights discuss how far in time is parabolic, it depends on dec of body and latitude of observer.
The series of points can give longitude as Brad indicated but with significantly less accuracy than the latitude is determined.
If aboard a moving vessel then you find the peak relative to a sloped tangent line but this is only signifanc for a high speed vessel.
DaveF
