NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Tony Oz
Date: 2020 Apr 6, 02:29 -0700
Hello!
Yesterday I took several sights of Venus. My results puzzle me greatly...
AP: 60°6,6'N 29°56,8'E
HoE: 3m; Dip corr = -3,0'
WE: -0h00m35s; fast
2020-04-05UT16: GHAVenus = 15°24,1'; dGHA = 15°0,1'/hr; DecVenus = 24°34,6'; dDec = 0,6'/hr
LoP#1
16:05:05; WT
-0:00:35; WE
16:04:30: UT1
42°00,6'; HS
-0°00,2'; IE
-0°03,0'; Dip corr.
41°57,4': HA
-0°01,1; Refr. correction (stars and planets)
41°56,3'; HO
42°08,5'; HC
12,2 nm AWAY
When I got this huge intercept I immediatelly re-checked the IE and WE values, both proved to be as per used in the reduction. I thought it was some sort of HS reading error. I took my next sight.
LoP#2
16:22:30; WT
-0:00:35: WE
16:21:55; UT2
40°02,1'; HS
-0°00,2'; IE
-0°03,0'; Dip corr.
39°58,9'; HA
-0°1,2'; Refr. corr. (stars and planets)
39°57,7'; HO
40°10,1'; HC
12,4 nm AWAY
At this point I re-confirned my AP coordinates - they were as per used in the reduction.
I took three more Venus sights - all gave me the same ~12nm-away intercepts.
Trying to understand what could go wrong - I thought I could misread my digital wrist-watch (Casio), so I attempted to search the UT for which those HS's would give reasonable intercepts. So, if I somehow could misread 16:07:05 as 16:05:05 it would position me closer to my GPS QTH, but the same ~two-minutes offset would need to occur in all five sights: 16:24:30 instead of 16:22:30 etc, unrealistic "explanation", I think.
What can it be? Some huge blunder on my side? A local scale error on my СНО-Т?
Thank you in advance for all the comments and hints.
Warm regards,
Tony
60°N 30°E