NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Ex-Meridian Sight using Inmans
From: David C
Date: 2020 Jun 10, 13:08 -0700
From: David C
Date: 2020 Jun 10, 13:08 -0700
Frank wrote
The technique for generating a latitude from a so-called ex-meridian sight is quite accurate within some reasonable limitations (which you can find by numerical simulation and experimentation, or by deriving the equation from the usual spherical triangle solution for altitude). But you'll note that the calculation is dependent on the accuracy of a couple of parameters. The most important of these is the time from noon. How would you know this time in a real navigation situation? Of course it is derived from your longitude.
Agreed. And if you are doing a long by chron for longitude the accuracy depends on the DR latitude. The intercept method solves these two problems but for an armchair navigator it is not as interesting.