NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Doug MacPherson
Date: 2019 Apr 8, 16:06 -0700
Interesting problem.
Some things I noticed.
1. from the article: "noon sight" at local apparent noon, a standard during the days of celestial navigation. Most other sights are made at dawn or twighlight.
problem: twighlight can be before sunrise (dawn) or after sunset.
problem Most other sights? I believe that morning and afternoon "time sights" (or sunlines if they had swicthed to the "new navigation") would have been much more prevalent than stars or planets at twilight.
2. from the article "...in reality, both observers would have had their octants to their eyes...."
Not necessarily. The sun hovers up there at the top of its arc for awhile, and it would seem more natural that the two navigators would not have lowered their octants at the same time. Your not marking a specific time when you find the sun's greatest altitude at noon.
Doug MacPherson
38° 34' N 121° 29' W
