Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on October 26, 2007 at 16:16:35 from 82.27.31.135 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: Time Ball, was Signal Stations posted by Jon on October 26, 2007 at 13:24:15:
I always thought that noon was critical.
But during our trip home from Portugal to Lowestoft in Excelsior, when we navigated by GPS, some of us were discussing celestial navigation with the skipper. He told us that it was easy, fetched his Sextant, took a sight of the sun, looked at his wrist watch (it was nowhere near noon), scribbled on a pad of paper for a couple of minutes, and gave me some figures, asking me to check them against the GPS. He was within two or three miles.
So why the emphasis on noon?