NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: I knew where we were, but where are we now?
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2006 Jun 27, 08:18 +1000
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2006 Jun 27, 08:18 +1000
George writes: > Recently, Peter Fogg has been particularly free with his words of > advice. Coming from someone with more than a few words of his own, I shall take that as a compliment. Thank you George. > I ask Peter to inform us about this "Table of meridional distances", > that he regards as so essential. Where are we to find it, and what is > done with it, under what circumstances? I'll have to think about this. Can supply the formulas, and scan the tables. I'm not the best person, unfortunately, to explain the mathematical (or other) theory behind its effectiveness. My understanding is that it is better because M. Parts only does part of the necessary job. Since it involves extra work and tables it would indeed be disappointing to find that it is less accurate than M. Parts alone. > "Accurate enough for practical purposes", says Peter (about Mid-Lat). But accurate > enough only for some practical purposes, and not for others. Yes to all the above. You are quite correct to say I am assuming the present practical need is for calculating relatively short passages. Planning ocean crossings can (presumably) come later. And may involve discussion of Great Circles.
