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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sun squash- was Green Flash and Longitude
From: Ken Gebhart
Date: 2006 Jan 15, 22:27 -0600
From: Ken Gebhart
Date: 2006 Jan 15, 22:27 -0600
On 1/15/06 8:31 PM, "Frank Reed"wrote: > Ken, you wrote: > "We would work the sight out, and to our surprise, they were never more than > 3 or 4 miles off. For a long time after that, I would note sun squash while > driving cross country, and work the sight upon return, with the same > apparent accuracy." > > Wow. 3 or 4 miles?? I find that hard to understand. Not that it's not true, > but if it is, it implies a rather impressive ability to detect squashedness! > > -FER > 42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W. > www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars > Frank, Yes, you are right, and maybe I am not remembering accurately from so long ago. But I do remember we were all amazed by the results. However, the samples were few, and could have been just lucky estimates. But bear in mind that the observation does not have to be just one estimate. For example, record when the squash is first detected. Then record estimates as the squash continues until sunset on whatever the horizon is. Having prior knowledge of time duration of squash, maximum amount of squash, and shape of the curve in general, and you can get a pretty good estimate of the event. Ken