You are planning a Polaris observation at latitude 42 degrees North when the sta

Question

You are planning a Polaris observation at latitude 42 degrees North when the star is at or near upper culmination. You want to know the error in azimuth that will result from a 1 min timing error. You know that the meridian angle, t, is exactly 0 degrees at upper culmination.

Use the approximations that the celestial sphere rotates once in approximately 24 hours, the declination of Polaris is approximately 89 degrees 10 minutes, and the bearing of Polaris is approximated by the folwing equation: Z = (sint)(p)(coslatitude). The azimuth error resulting from a 1 min timing error is most nearly?

Explanation / Answer

The two answers by anonymous are incorrect. Polaris is less than a degree from north at any time at latitude given thus the error cannot be over a degree. t is hour angle in sidereal time. For 1 minute the conversion will not matter. 1 minute in time will 15 minutes in hour angle. p is polar distance which is 90 degrees minus the declination or 50 minutes. Given those numbers the error in azimuth comes out to be 0.29 minutes or or about 17.6"

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