[time-nuts] Re: Derivation of time from celestial sight

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

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Lux, Jim writes:

>On 12/27/21 12:18 PM, Brent wrote:
>> My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that one could derive 'stellar'
>> time from a start sight/fix on polaris or another well tracked celestial
>> object.  I was once told that early editions of Bowditch provided the
>> process (for the moon I was told) although one of the relatively old
>> edition's that I have doesn't provide it.

You want a bright star as close to your latitudes Zenith as possible,
to get maximum apperant transit velocity.

Polaris would be a spectacular bad choice as it barely moves at all.

>Occultation of stars by the Moon provides a "universal" time source 
>(assuming you can see the Moon and stars).

Interesting history search term: "Latitude observatory".


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