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Regiment of the Pole

The historic name for the difference between the height of Polaris and the height of the actual pole of the sky. In the time of Columbus, the maximum value was some 3.5°. Today it is about 40'.

Technically, the Regiment was a rule for figuring this difference at any time of night, which was used to find latitude by Polaris. Navigators often had a mechanical wheel they could orient with the Polaris and the Guards of the Little Dipper to compute the value.

We have made a modern, accurate value of the Regiment, which forms part of the basis for our new book GPS Backup with a Mark 3 Sextant. The new version in that book is more accurate than the one we used in Emergency Navigation back in the 80's

See this History of the Regiment


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