NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunar distance sights
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2013 Apr 22, 17:54 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2013 Apr 22, 17:54 -0400
Dear Randall, 1. Your results are within the conditions of the longitude prize of queen Anna. The prize condition was to determine the longitude to 1/2 degree. 2. Published statistics of Lunar accuracy is scarce; I collected some on my web page http://www.math.purdue.edu/~eremenko/Navigation/Accuracy/accuracy.html http://www.math.purdue.edu/~eremenko/Navigation/Accuracy/mylunars And other files in the same directory, including Cook's observations in Point Venus. I would say that the best results available for statistics (taken in ideal conditons, from land) are somewhat better than the statistics you quote, but not by much. Alex. > There have been postings about what level of lunar distance accuraccy can > be achieved, but I would like to know what level of accuraccy is usable? > Better is "better" of course, but at what point is a sight usable? Of my > last 14 lunar sights the average is 0.7' error in lunar distance. The > best were 2 sights at 0.1' and the worst 1.3'. The average for 7 > moon-planet sight was 0.7' and for 6 moon sun sight it was 0.5. Are > these good results? The 30 minutes of longitude error for 1' of lunar > distance makes me look disdainfully at my efforts that are not less than a > minute. What's the grading standard gentlemen? > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList > Members may optionally receive posts by email. > To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > : http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=123650 > > >