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To: DUMBGRUNT

30.0” South and 30.0” West.

To the nearest 30 seconds N and W with a sextant? That’s incredibly precise — a second of arc on the earth’s surface is about 100 feet.

Was he really precise to a tenth of a second? Why are both measurements to 30.0 seconds on the dot?


24 posted on 02/10/2019 9:51:59 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I once actually knew how to do celestial navigation, but have no recollection of how precise the sextants were.

According to the Wikipedia writeup on sextants, a skilled navigator can determine position to within about a quarter mile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextant


31 posted on 02/11/2019 5:21:27 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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