Starpath DR Calculator Help
Great circle computations are discussed at
Great Circle Distance — The Three Options
In qtVlm you can change the radius in menu Config / Advanced / Earth radius
the one called "Celestial" is the spherical earth, with 1' = 1 nmi along any great circle
On the great circle result, the Heading is the initial heading. The actual heading changes along the route.
Rhumb line computations (Mercator sailing) is discussed in
Section 11.23 Rhumb-line Sailing
of our textbook Celestial Navigation: A Complete Home Study Course
We use the Bowditch Meridional Parts procedure, where we compute
the Parts using the equations presented in the Explanation of Table 6 that is found
on PDF page 16 of Volume 2 of the 2021 edition of Bowditch
Note that the app does not read the earth radius option for Rhumb Line computations.
It uses the ellipsoid values given in Bowditch.
NOTE: This calculator is build as a Progressive Web App (PWA), which means when downloaded to your mobile app and saved to the home screen it will work offshore with no network or internet connection. Once installed as a WPA, check that it woks in Airplane mode with W-IFI turned off.