Next message: Frank Reed: "Re: dip, dip short, distance off with buildings, etc."
On 1/14/06 9:24 PM, "Fred Hebard" <> wrote:
>
>
> Great post Ken. I can imagine it would be a lot of fun, or
> something, to try to work out a sight by hand while steering with
> one's knees!
>
> How would you measure squash? The altitude of the two limbs and
> assuming the SD for the width or the semi-diameter both ways? I
> don't know how to do semi-diameter with an aircraft sextant (or
> anything else with an aircraft sextant!).
>
> Fred
>
Thanks Fred,
The idea is just a visual observation without a sextant. The ellipse
templates as mentioned, could be used to compare with the squashed sun to
get a good value. The entire squash phenomenon takes place during a 15 to
20 minute period. The first discernable squash is at about 2%, and can best
be seen with the head tilted 90 deg to the side. For some reason we humans
can detect a slight ellipse with the major axis vertical rather than
horizontal.
Ken
