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You can keep the armour off for my answer Joe, perhaps just move up to give
me a place to duck behing your shield !....
I can identify with your comment - perhaps our more experienced navigators
would not agree, but yes, I have found that it is often subjective - even
standing in the garden trying to shoot a LAN sight onto the garden wall
(just for "finding highest-altitude" practice) can be difficult and this was
in an ideal environment.
regards
Russell
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jim Manzari [SMTP:manzari@XXX.XXX]
> Sent:	Monday, September 28, 1998 8:13 PM
> To:	navigation@XXX.XXX
> Cc:	Russell Sher
> Subject:	Re: [Nml] the answer...?
>
        Jim wrote...
> ...I consider myself to be a reasonably experienced (celestial)
> navigator, but I am puzzled by the problem.  The only explanation that
> I can think of, is that you were on a heading directly opposite to the
> sun (I confess that I am not familiar with the geography of the area
> between Mauretania and the Schedlt) and thus the sun appeared to be
> decreasing in height but still approaching your meridian.
>
> And now, I have to add a bit of my own opinion regarding the noon sun
> shot.    Before I commence, put on your armour,   get your daggers
> ready for I am about to utter a bit of heresy.
>
> The noon sun shot is overrated.    It's beauty lies in the simplicity
> of the calculations required to obtain one's latitude, but that is
> where it ends.    One can easily take a few quick observations at
> "around" noon hour, reduce the sight as normal and plot the resultant
> east-west LOP on your chart to obtain your latitude.    This method is
> particularly useful at high latitudes where the trajectory of the sun's
> passage tends to be fairly flat and determining the exact moment at
> which the sun reaches its maximum height can be somewhat subjective.
>  In the winter time here in Iqaluit, I have sat outside, freezing my
> tail off, for up to 45 minutes, waiting for the sun to reach its
> maximum height of 3 degrees above the horizon.
>
> Even in the mid-latitudes, I have seen people up on deck taking
> observation after observation, trying to determine the exact moment of
> meridian passage, and even after all of that, there is no guarantee of
> a satisfactory result; I have rarely seen two people obtain the same
> numbers.    I am not suggesting  that the noon sun shot should be
> discarded - I still like to perform the operation - but it is not the
> be all and end all.
>
> Ok, allow me to put on my bullet-proof suit....fire away folks!
>
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