Note 499 — THE THIRD VOYAGE NORTH-WARD TO THE KINGDOMES OF CATHAIA and China, in Anno 1596.
Reading edition
If we assume the smaller amount of error to be the more probable, we must regard this observation as having been made on the 20th of March, instead of the 21st. The observer found the sun’s altitude to be 14°, believing it to be then on the equinoctial, and therefore without declination. But at mean noon in Novaya Zemlya, the sun’s declination on March 20th was—0° 8′,8, and on March 21st + 0° 14′,9, the sun having crossed the equinoctial between 10 and 11 o’clock of the intervening night. The corrected calculation for both days will therefore be as follows:—
March 20th. March 21st.
Altitude of the sun 14° 0′ 14° 0′
Refraction 3,8 3,8
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13 56,2 13 56,2
Sun’s declination — 8,8 + 14,9
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Complement φ 14 5 13 41,3
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φ 75° 55′ 76° 8′,7
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Or, deduct. the sun’s semi-diam. 75° 36′ 75° 52′,7