PERSONAL EQUATION AND THE MODERN MARINE SEXTANT

Charles H. Smiley and Mark Quirk

Peer Reviewed

Abstract: low angular altitudes some seven years ago, we elected to use the modern marine sextant because no other instrument was then available which could be used at sea, in the air and on land and which was as accurate as the marine sextant. Thus to achieve a satisfactory accuracy, our observers were obliged to make a great many observations of the sun’s vertical diameter, some 50,000 to date, and great pains have been taken to eliminate all constant errors. Among the latter were the instrumental errors and the personal equations of our observers. This paper is to tell some of the things which were learned about personal equation in the use of the modern marine sextant.
Published in: NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 3, Number 10
Pages: 353 - 356
Cite this article: Smiley, Charles H., Quirk, Mark, "PERSONAL EQUATION AND THE MODERN MARINE SEXTANT", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 3, No. 10, 1953, pp. 353-356.
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