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: Hewitt Schlereth
Date: 2020 Jan 13, 16:38 -0800
From: Hewitt Schlereth
Date: 2020 Jan 13, 16:38 -0800
Rafael, welcome aboard.
You can also determine the time of noon by "bracketing" sights.
As you follow the sun up, make a note of the time and altitude of one or two of your pre-max sights.
After you have made a note of the sun's maximum altitude, reset your sextant to a pre-max altitude and wait till the sun again touches that altitude. Note the time.
Add the time of the pre-max altitude to the time of its matching post-max altitude. Divide by 2. That's the time of noon, which converts to your longitude.
In 1982 I did a book on this subject - Latitude & Longitude by the Noon Sight.
Regards and, again, Welcome Aboard, Rafael.
Hewitt Schlereth
