J T wrote:

Mon, May 2, 2005, 4:53am (gregg) says:
snip the Sun Compass was not used to determine your latitude, as I
understand it. it was used to figure out which way was North. It was
essentially a sundial used in reverse. snip

Easy enough to find north without any gadgets.

At sea? During the Day?

The Sun Compass was
used to determine True North, which is a bit trickier.

I have to disagree - the Vikings weren't aware of magnetic variation. They
had no magnetic compass. They didn't know there was True vs Magnetic North.

And, apparently
was "set" for a specific latitude.

It was marked out at a specific latitude, yes. They had no math to mark the
Sun Compass out without using the sun in the first place. So, like the
Kamal it was calibrated for latitudes.

So, if you wanted that latitude, you
could use a Sun Compass to find it.

How? What actions were taken with ta sun compass to determine your
latitude?

Another latitude, another Sun
Compass. Supposedly is was within a few degrees as accurate as a
magnetic compass - which is not bad for those times.



JOAT
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- Brander Matthews

--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm