Next message: Alexandre E Eremenko: "Re: Problem with a sextant"
Peter,
On Tue, 25 Apr 2006, Peter Fogg wrote:
> I've had zero intercepts with
> sights made on land, meaning that the error was less than the resolving
> power of my method
I also had zero intercepts with the same sextant.
And not only with Sun but also with the Lunars.
But let me cite William Wales, Cooke's companion:
"It must be owned there is yet something
in the constitution of this Quadrant very disagreable,
and not easily to be accounted for. Sometimes, many months
together, the longitudes deduced from observations made about the same
time with my two sextants would not differ more than 10
or 15 miles, and very seldom so much; after which
the longitudes, so deduced, would begin to differ, and the difference
would gradually increase, sometimes more than a degree and an half:
In little time it would again decrease, and soon after the observations
would agree as well as ever.
It will be readily supposed, that no means were left untried by me
to discover the ause of this strange aberration; but all
my endeavours were ineffectual;
and I mention the circumstance to induce some person,
more skilful in mechanics, to attempt it".
As we see, my problem is not new:-)
Alex.
