[time-nuts] Slightly OT - GPS-Based Accurate Direction Finding

jimlux jimlux at earthlink.net
Fri Aug 27 14:07:40 UTC 2010


Thomas A. Frank wrote:
> I would suggest you buy an old surveying transit.
> 
> This is what largely they were intended for.
>

ANd with a transit, you can easily see Polaris in the day time.


Here's an article discussing how to do it
http://www.cadastral.com/cad-polr.htm

skip down to the section on Observation Procedure

It's a bit trickier than it says...
-- you won't be able to do this the first time

  small field of view on the telescope means you have to be pointed 
pretty close to find it.  What I wound up doing is marking the place 
where I'd set the theodlite up, going out at night and finding Polaris, 
and finding a suitable object on the horizon to reference to.  Then the 
next day, I set up the tripod and used that object to get the azimuth 
approximate, tipped up to the right elevation, and, et voila, there it 
was in the scope. The comment about focus is right on though.




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