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Two Bodies + Angle Between Them = Third LoP
From: David Iwancio
Date: 2020 Feb 17, 11:10 -0800
From: David Iwancio
Date: 2020 Feb 17, 11:10 -0800
Before I expend more mental energy on this idea, I'd like to know if this has been done before so I can avoid re-inventing the wheel.
A brief outline:
- Altitudes of two stars give standard two-body fix
- Sextant distance between two stars + lunar distance-style math = high-precision difference in azimuth between two stars
- Difference in azimuth is analagous to horizontal angle between two objects in coastal piloting
- Can be used to produce "circle of equal angle" (see Bowditch 2019, section 1102)
Unlike the two circles of equal altitude, this third LoP would be relatively insensitive to any non-standard dip and should be immune to any failure to swing the sextant properly.
