Longitude (book) consults the home port clock, every hour's discrepancy between them translates into another fifteen degrees of longitude. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time the world over, although in terms of distance, one degree shrinks from 60.15 nautical miles or 111 km [Earth's circumference being: 21,653.521 nautical miles, or 24,901.55 statute miles at the Equator], to virtually nothing at the poles. Precise knowledge of the hour in two different places at once - a longitude prerequisite so easily accessible today from any pair of cheap wristwatches - was utterly unattainable up to and including the era of pendulum
Circle of equal altitude Circle of equal altitude The circle of equal altitude also called circle of position, CoP, is the real line of position in celestial navigation. It is defined as the locus of the Earth on which an observer sees a star, at a given time, with the same observed altitude. The center of the CoP, is the substellar point or geographical position of the observed body, and its radius is the great circle distance equal to the zenith distance of the body. The equation links the following variables formula_1 Being "B" the latitude (+N/S), "L" the longitude (+E/-W). "LHA" = "GHA"