View Single Post
  #12   Report Post  
Wally
 
Posts: n/a
Default The noon sight - it's a beautiful thing.

Jeff Morris wrote:

One sight at local noon yields your latitude and longitude.


Clearly not true - for starters, you can't take "one sight at local
noon" unless you already know your longitude. If Neal had actually
ever taken a Noon Sight, he would know this!


I am but a sweet, innocent, fresh-faced n00b, and wonder if my reasoning is
correct...

I have a sextant and an accurate chronometer set to GMT. I am somewhere on
the surface of the earth, but know not where. I awaken from my slumbers one
morning and find myself wondering what my longitude is, so I watch the sun's
upward climb across the sky. As it approaches zenith - local noon - I note
the time on my chronometer and then crunch time into degrees to determine my
longitude.


--
Wally
www.art-gallery.myby.co.uk
Latest work: The Langlois Bridge (after Van Gogh)