Wilbur Hubbard wrote:
"Charles Momsen" wrote in message
...
"Bart" wrote in message
...
On Oct 23, 9:48 pm, "Charles Momsen" wrote:
"Bart" wrote in message

...

Aside from the Sun, when heavenly body is most
useful for determining your latitude? [1 pt]
The earth, then Polaris.
For the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris is quite
useful. How much does it vary from true
North?

It depends on the time of year.


Bwahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahhah! Time of year has nothing to do with
where Polaris is seen in the sky. The Earth's axis of rotation is only
different with respect to the sun making for seasons, not to the plane of
the ecliptic. Duh! Now, had you said something about it depends upon in
which epoch you might have had a point because of something called
precession of the Earth's rotational axis.

I hope this helps.

http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/q1795.html


Well Neal, strictly speaking Charles is correct,, it is caused by
parallax error. Or more correctly, geocentric parallax, for Polaris
it's about 0.007",,, not likely that you'd be able to measure it while
at sea.


Ref: http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/mainstars/SIT000816.htm

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Martin