Once again Neal has blown a chance to impress. If he had made a reasonable
claim, it might have been believable. But by claiming the impossible, he proves
that he really knows nothing of celestial.

comments interspersed ...

"Simple Simon" wrote in message
...
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!


Poor Ole Thom who claims to have used a sextant seems to
not understand this simple fact.

1) the angle of the sun at local noon gives you your latitude.

2) the time differential of the sun's azimuth from Greenwich
mean time gives you the longitude.

True, but its a very tedious process for even an approximate position. It can't
be done with "one sight."

Expensive chronographs are no longer necessary.

This has been true for almost a century.

GPS time is plenty accurate enough

Well, duh!

as well as a good quartz watch set to radio signals from WWV.

Even a cheap quartz watch will do.


I can take one noon sight anywhere in the world covered by the
tables I have on board, correct it for errors and come up with
my position within ten miles easily every time provided it is not
overcast, raining or some such.

Nonsense. The "zenith distance" of the Sun varies less than one second for
almost two minutes at local noon. During this time the Earth moves about 30
miles at the Equator. And that's with one second accuracy! One minute
accuracy is considered pretty good - that might leave you 100 miles away.
Celestaire says Neal's plastic sextant typically has a 5 minute error.

And Neal is claiming he can do this with one sight! While it is possible to do
this for latitude, it is completely impossible for longitude.


Celestial navigation in its most basic form - the noon sight - is
no mystery. Why, I bet even otnmbrd and Shen44 are able to
do it which means any old moron can do it - even Bobsprit most
likely.

S.Simon - has taken more noon sights than cherries!


I'll believe that! He may have done one sight!


--
-jeff
"Constant Vigilance!" - Frances W. Wright, author of "Celestial Navigation,"
instructor of thousands of navigators, myself included.