NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Meridional Distances
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2006 Jun 27, 15:49 +1000
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2006 Jun 27, 15:49 +1000
Anyone interested in this topic (about Sailings, broadly, or the determination of Rhumb Line traverses) might like to compare their favourite methods with these examples using Meridional Parts and Distances. I have at least four sets of tables of Meridional Parts and two of Meridional Distances. Although more than one are supposedly based on WGS84 the factors differ. Since we may be examining small differences this should be borne in mind as a possible complication. Q1) From S13d 11.4' W103d 12.3' we sail 2994.7nm at TC 237.6d. Where do we find ourselves? A1) S40d 00.5' E055d 31.8' Q2) Taking as our departure point N47d 39.2' E168d 12.5' we fly a rhumb line course following our bearing of TC 133.4d until we land 1953nm later. Where are we? A2) N25d 15.5' W162d 04.4 Incidentally, looking for more info on Meridional Distances online turns up lots of references, as you'd expect, but they mostly seem to relate to cartographic and other science related uses, rather than a compact explanation. This site seems to have much to say generally about sailings and even a little about MD: http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/archim/dict/hw?lemma=SAILING&s tep=entry&id=d006 Meridional Distances are also known to some as Latitude Parts. That turns up lots of unwanted information about Dell computers.
