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It is not very critical,
And exactly for this reason, you can determine your latitude
by noon Sun without a chronometer (which was a common practice before chronometers).
You cannot tell exactly how much error will every second of time introduce,
because the answer depends on your latitude, Sun's declination, and how far is your second from the noon.

But one can make a simple table for this error.

With the technique used in practice (you start few minutes before the noon, 
and just rotate your drum until
the latitude increases), and take the reading when it starts decreasing, the 
error is negligible, so you do not really need this table.

But I can reproduce this simple table (from a book) if there is need.

Alex.
________________________________________
From: NavList@fer3.com [NavList@fer3.com] on behalf of Mike Freeman [NoReply_Freeman@fer3.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 12:46 PM
To: eremenko@math.purdue.edu
Subject: [NavList] Latitude by noon Sun sight

How critical is it to nail the exact time of LAN?. This must have been 
considered thousands of times. For every minute of time out what would be the 
error. I guess not much?

Thanks

Mike

   

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