Latitude exact relationship of parallels and meridians with horizontal and vertical: both are complicated curves. On the sphere the normal passes through the centre and the latitude () is therefore equal to the angle subtended at the centre by the meridian arc from the equator to the point concerned. If the meridian distance is denoted by then where denotes the mean radius of the Earth. is equal to . No higher accuracy is appropriate for since higher-precision results necessitate an ellipsoid model. With this value for the meridian length of 1 degree of latitude on the sphere is (60.0 nautical miles).
The Nautical Almanac The Nautical Almanac The Nautical Almanac has been the familiar name for a series of official British almanacs published under various titles since the first issue of "The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris", for 1767: this was the first nautical almanac to contain data dedicated to the convenient determination of longitude at sea. It was originally published from the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England. A detailed account of how the publication was produced in its earliest years has been published by the National Maritime Museum. Since 1958 (with the issue for the year 1960), [[Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office]] and