Numbers

sunsite2I was out of the sight of land for a while today so I took the noon sight.  You can reduce the numbers down and determine my position at noon if you know the math.  I’ tell you this, it was within a mile and half of the GPS position which is pretty good for celestial navigation.

My DR Latitude were 50⁰ N and 60⁰ W

I shot the lower limb of the sun at the following times and altitudes

11h 59m 49s​59⁰ 32.8’

12h 00m 49​59⁰ 33.7’

12h 01m 40s​59⁰ 33.7’

12h 02m 20s​59⁰ 33.2’

12h 04m 47s​59⁰ 32.9’

I called local apparent noon to be 12h 01m 00s

Meridian passage of the sun was at 12h 06m

The sun’s declination at 1600Z was N20⁰ 09.3’  the d correction was 0.5 for 1 minute = 0.0

The sextant index correction was +1.4’  the dip correction was -1.0’

My course was 090⁰T at 5kts

If you know the math you can find my position at 1201 on 7/22/09

And did you know a total eclipse of the sun occurred today?

Tomorrow I will publish the GPS posit I wrote down

2 Responses to “Numbers”

  1. Roger says:

    Thanks for inserting the links to Google maps with your locations. How much food do you carry onboard and how do you generally replenish your supplies? Not every harbor/dock area has a grocery store within walking distance…

  2. Kari Thoresen says:

    Tommy! I can’t wait to figure this one out! I am not going to look at your GPS position until I do. I can’t tell you how fantastic it is to see you doing some celestial stuff. I am at sea right now… off Nootka Sound… and made a futile attempt to talk about sextants with some shipmates yesterday. They think I am completely nuts. But I am bound and determined to learn this ancient art… and am thrilled there is somebody else out there who apprecitates it too!