02-29-2016, 02:18 PM
The following is copied from part of JeremyParker's post over at; [/url]
[url=https://thenauticalalmanac.com/Forum/showthread.php?tid=14]
Does anyone really shoot the Moon?
His question follows;
My follow up question perhaps belongs in a different thread - Who bothers with Noon sights, and why?
I ask because there seems to be an almost religious attachment to the noon sight amongst many navigators and a belief that it is necessary to determine latitude to obtain a fix! Consequently we hang around on deck for 20 minutes awaiting the magical zenith moment while our lunch is going cold in the galley below, only to have the only clouds of the day obscure the sun right about LAN. Why not snap off and reduce a quick series of sights whenever we please and cross the resultant LOP with that of our advanced morning sight. This still renders our position; we can still determine Lat and Long. We only NEED a Latitude if we are performing a Time Sight - an observation by which we determine LHA and thence Longitude - but when using the intercept method precise Lat is not necessary.
[url=https://thenauticalalmanac.com/Forum/showthread.php?tid=14]
Does anyone really shoot the Moon?
His question follows;
My follow up question perhaps belongs in a different thread - Who bothers with Noon sights, and why?
I ask because there seems to be an almost religious attachment to the noon sight amongst many navigators and a belief that it is necessary to determine latitude to obtain a fix! Consequently we hang around on deck for 20 minutes awaiting the magical zenith moment while our lunch is going cold in the galley below, only to have the only clouds of the day obscure the sun right about LAN. Why not snap off and reduce a quick series of sights whenever we please and cross the resultant LOP with that of our advanced morning sight. This still renders our position; we can still determine Lat and Long. We only NEED a Latitude if we are performing a Time Sight - an observation by which we determine LHA and thence Longitude - but when using the intercept method precise Lat is not necessary.