NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Latitude by Lunar Distance
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2006 Oct 5, 11:29 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2006 Oct 5, 11:29 -0400
This method is essentially based on the Moon parallax. (Imagine that the Earth is very small. Then the method will not work: all lunar distances are the same, independently of your place on a small Earth). To estimate the accuracy, notice that the ratio of the distance to the Moon to the Earth radius is 60 (very roughly). So the loss of precision due to the method is by the factor of 60 under the most favorable conditions. These most favorable conditions are: a) The Moon is near zenith, and b) The two directions Moon-star are perpendicular. So under these conditions, the method is less accurate than the usual Lunar distances by a factor of 2. If the Moon's altitude is 30, multiply by enother factor of 2. Now it is hard for me to believe that one can measure distances with 0.1 or even 0.2 accuracy permanently and reliably:-) Some results posted by Frank seem to show that he can, but it is still unclear whether he posts his best results of average results:-) I still have no definite opinion on this matter, but my analysis of observations of Cook's expedition seems to indicate much lower accuracy than 0.2' And this was done from the ground, by professional astronomers, possibly with the best sextants ever made (?) The Lunar method was advertized as having approx 1/4 of a degree accuracy. This I believe. Then the lunar-with-chronometer-but-no-horizon method has probably 1/2 degree accuracy or so. Alex. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---