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    Re: Planning a fix with >45 degrees intersection in LOPs
    From: Gary LaPook
    Date: 2016 Jan 26, 02:01 +0000
    OR, just use HO 249 volume 1 and choose the stars with the diamonds. For daytime fixes, sun - moon, choose the dates for  first and last quarter moon.

    gl




    From: Stan K <NoReply_StanK@fer3.com>
    To: garylapook@pacbell.net
    Sent: Monday, January 25, 2016 2:57 PM
    Subject: [NavList] Re: Planning a fix with >45 degrees intersection in LOPs

    Steve,

    The most popular two-body fix is a Sun-Moon (daytime, no flashlight needed, warmer, easy bodies, etc.)  If you are planning a Sun-Moon fix, Celestial Tools makes planning easy.  Just use the Sight Planner tool.  Enter the date and the latitude and longitude of the place where you hope to take the sight.  Click on the "Get Twilight Times..." button.  (This needs to be done once even though you will not be using the information.)  Then enter ANY time in the "Enter desired ZT..." box.  Enter the range of available azimuths for your location.  If you will accept the Sun or Moon being below 15º altitude, lower the value in the "Enter minimum altitude..." box.  (If you want a higher minimum altitude, raise the value).  Then click on "List Visible Bodies/Sun-Moon Fix" button.  The information about the availability of a Sun-Moon for the date, location, azimuth range, and minimum altitude will then appear in the lower right corner of the window.  It gives the range of times, if any, and the phase (percent illumination) of the Moon when the "cut" is at least 45º.

    If you are interested in something other than a Sun-Moon fix, you can go through the same process, but put a more proper time, like the time of the end of PM civil twilight, in the "Enter desired ZT..." box.  Then you can do the math, using the listed azimuths of the visible bodies.  But, even easier, is to click on the "View Visible Bodies" button instead of the "List Visible Bodies/Sun-Moon Fix" button.  Then select "Two-body fix" in the "Best Bodies Aid" box in the lower left corner.  Use the "Rotate CCW" and "Rotate CW" buttons to move the red lines that appeared.  The ideal cut of 90º is shown by the solid red lines, but, in order to meet the minimum 45º requirement, just rotate the lines until you can pick one body between the dash-dot pair of red lines and one body between the dash-dash pair of red lines.  If you want to use the limited azimuth range previously entered, be sure to check the "Limit azimuth range" box.  You can reduce clutter by un-checking the "Show 2nd..." and "Show 3rd..." magnitude star boxes.  To see all the body names at once, check the "Show Names" box, or just hover the cursor over the body of interest and its name, azimuth, and altitude will be shown on the right.

    Consult the Sight Planner Help for more details on the use of this tool.

    Stan


    -----Original Message-----
    From: Steve E. Bryant <NoReply_Bryant@fer3.com>
    To: slk1000 <slk1000---.com>
    Sent: Mon, Jan 25, 2016 4:52 pm
    Subject: [NavList] Planning a fix with >45 degrees intersection in LOPs

    Dear Navlisters,
    I want to plan my two body fix such that the resultant intersection of the two lines of position will not be less than 45°.
    I want to us the Celestial Tools software to help with the planning (unless there is a better way).
    I suspect that the individual Zn for each of the bodies to be used in the fix will be useful in chosing the ideal pairs.  I'm not sure how much their various altitudes will impact the selection such that I can be assured that the intersetion of the lines of positoin will not be less than 45°.
    Which of all the relationships among the celestial positions will be the easiest to review and compare in order to project what the likely angle of intersection will be?
    This question may be too general but I'm hoping there will be some simple rule of thumb.  I see that there is a fucntion which will permit some comparison between the relative angular positions among the stars/planets upon the celestial sphere but I'm not certain how that corralates to their respective lines of positions once the two sights have been taken. 
    Steve Bryant


       
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