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Re: Latitude from Farmer's Almanac?
From: Richard B. Langley
Date: 2000 Jan 11, 11:51 AM
From: Richard B. Langley
Date: 2000 Jan 11, 11:51 AM
At local noon (when a shadow is the shortest), the sun is on one's merdian.
If you measure the sun's zenith distance (90 degrees minus elevation angle) at
that time, then one's latitude equals the sum of the zenith distance and the
sun's declination. This assumes the azimuth of the sun is 180 degrees. If
it's 0 degrees, then latitude equals declination minus zenith distance.
-- Richard Langley
Professor of Geodesy and Precision Navigation
On Tue, 11 Jan 2000, Richard B. Emerson wrote:
>A friend raised an interesting question: The 2000 edition of the
>Farmer's Almanac includes a table of the Sun's declination for this
>year. J's question is: could this table be used in a pinch to
>determine at least one's latitude? Comments, anyone?
>
>Rick
>S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35
>
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Richard B. Langley E-mail: lang@unb.ca
Geodetic Research Laboratory Web: http://www.unb.ca/GGE/
Dept. of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering Phone: +1 506 453-5142
University of New Brunswick Fax: +1 506 453-4943
Fredericton, N.B., Canada E3B 5A3
Fredericton? Where's that? See: http://www.city.fredericton.nb.ca/
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