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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunar distance by photography
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2024 Jun 30, 14:57 -0700
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2024 Jun 30, 14:57 -0700
Longitude determination by photography of the Moon and stars is explained in considerable detail in the wide ranging book "Topographic surveying, including georaphic, exploratory, and military mapping, with hints on camping, emergency surgery, and photography," by Herbert M. Wilson, 1908. He notes the elliptical shape of the limb when the Moon is off center on the plate, but says the effect is negligible if one of the images is within 2° of center. For an example of the accuracy of this method he gives the results of five determinations. Root of the mean squared longitude error is 1.3 seconds of time (not arc). https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZlCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA793 -- Paul Hirose sofajpl.com
