3 ms·
Anyone have any idea how much extra "positional" info one could extract out of the position of the sun + an accurate clock? Granted, I know you couldn't quite
by zo1 12y ago
Anyone have any idea how much extra "positional" info one could extract out of the position of the sun + an accurate clock?
Granted, I know you couldn't quite get an exact 3d positional reading from just those. But the way I see it, these are complementary systems, and if possible, this extra "data-point" can add accuracy by further narrowing down possible actual locations. Sort of like overlapping 3d volumes (from different systems, with differing levels of accuracy), that allow you to triangulate your position. Each data-source incrementally removing "definitely-wrong" or "very-innacurate" data points from your end calculation.
- john_b 12y agoMy M.S. thesis was essentially an attempt to answer this question. The answer, it turns out, is that the readings you get from single bright celestial sources (sun, moon) aren't accurate enough to enable navigation primarily from this data, even assuming perfect timekeeping. You can use multiple readings of multiple celestial sources (stars) to navigate reliably, but then you've shifted the problem. With a single reference source your main problem is the sensitivity to error (slight angular errors translate to miles). But if you use starlight your primary difficulty is simply measuring the light sources in an affordable way (i.e. short of taking images in real time and doing real time image processing and graph construction on them).