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Re: Personal equation in timed observations
From: Peter Monta
Date: 2018 Oct 23, 23:30 -0700
From: Peter Monta
Date: 2018 Oct 23, 23:30 -0700
The book "Longitude by Wire" has some interesting descriptions of approaches to mitigate personal equation (before the impersonal devices came into play). The most surprising thing to me was the observer swap. If you're stuck with those pesky biased humans, no problem, just swap the same two observers, complete with eyes and brains, between the two sites, and the delta-personal-error changes sign. A small matter that the observatories are many hundreds of miles apart and that travel was not so simple in those days. A testament to their attention to detail.
Cheers,
Peter
