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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: New compact backup CELNAV system RENAMED Accuracy of Bygrave Slide Rule
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2009 Apr 11, 16:48 -0700
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2009 Apr 11, 16:48 -0700
Hi Gary The MHR-1 has the instructions printed on the rule itself, so they are right where you need them. Naturally, they are in German. I fiddled around and came up with this translation (using online word by word translation. Begin Translation Special case: with azimuth between 85 degrees and 90 degrees, the calculation is repeated with the permutation of latitude and declination. Instead of latitude in the second step, use declination and calculate b=90 ? declination. In the third step, Azimuth is the helper angle that is used only for the calculation the altitude. Don?t use the slide rule when the hour angle and declination is between 0? and 20?, as well as when the hour angle is close to 90. End translation. Azimuth => helper angle, but not a valid Azimuth at that point. I think you are supposed to get the azimuth by running the calculation TWICE. In the first instance, you get the azimuth close to 90. In the second instance, you solve for altitude. ------------- The MHR-1 also permits the use of hour angles beyond 6 hours or 90 degrees. So, if you were beyond the arctic or antarctic circle and wanted to calculate the alitude of the sun as it runs around the sky in 24 hours without setting, you can do so. I have done just that. It took a bit of thought to see how the MHR-1 was to be manipulated, but it does clearly word (and compares well with calculator comparison). In addition to the black numbers printed by the lines, there are also red numbers that extend the scales to 180 degrees. ------------- In answer to your querry regarding the Flat Bygrave compared to the Cylindrical Bygrave, we have only to look to the printing process, assuming that you did follow the equations. The modern person, like you or I, will print our scales directly on a one to one basis. That is, the print size is the final size. We will be subject to the resolution of the printer. 300 DPI (dots per inch) will look just fine but you may wish to jump to the highest resolution possible. No matter which resolution you obtain, this will force the ticks on the Flat Bygrave to one line of pixels or another, as a function of the printer resolution. For the cylindrical Bygrave, I will have to resort to a bit of speculation. I wasn't around when the original English Bygraves were made and I certainly wasn't in Nazi Germany for the MHR-1 construction. However, the general principal is to make one huge master and photo reduce it down. This principal was used to great advantage. The creator spends alot of time with a massive scale, measuring off and marking lines where they are to be. Then the image is reduced for production. You essentially have infinite resolution, since each line is individually created, one at a time. Any small errors in tick creation are masked when the photo reduction occurs. The benefit of the directly printed scale is the speed at which it is initially created and the lack of creation errors (assuming those equations are right). The draw back is the pixelation. The benefit of the photo reduction method is the infinite resolution for the tick marks. Slow as molasses in creation though. I strongly feel that there will be little if any affect on the resultant reductions. The Bygrave does not depend on precise alignment of the tick marks, merely the closest one, by eye. Best Regards Brad --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---