BLANK TUBE

The difference in apparent direction or position of an object when viewed from different points. For bodies of the solar system, parallax is the difference in the direction of the body due to the dis- placement of the observer from the center of the earth, and is called geocentric parallax, varying with the body’s altitude and distance from the earth. The geocentric parallel when a body is in the horizon is called horizontal parallax, as contrasted with the parallax at any altitude, called parallax in altitude. Parallax of the moon is called lunar parallax. In marine navigation it is customary to apply a parallax correction to sextant altitudes of the sun, moon, Venus, and Mars. For stars, parallax is the angle at the star subtended by the semimajor axis of the earth’s orbit and is called heliocentric or stellar parallax, which is too small to be significant as a sextant error.

An optical instrument which displaces the line of sight parallel to itself, to permit a view which may otherwise be obstructed.

The lowest extremity of the moulded surface of the ship. At the point where this line cuts the midship section a horizontal line is drawn, and it is this line which acts as the datum for all hydrostatic calculations. This line may, or may not, be parallel to the LWL depending on the ship type.

An instrument for transferring a line parallel to itself. In its most common form it consists of two parallel bars or rulers connected in such manner that when one is held in place, the other may be moved, remaining parallel to its original position.

The angular difference between the heading as indicated by a lubber’s line, and the actual heading; the horizontal angle, at the center of an instrument, between a line through the lubber’s line and one parallel to the keel.

The error introduced in the reading of an instrument when it is tilted, as a marine sextant held so that its frame is not perpendicular to the horizon.

The process of rotating a sextant about the line of sight to the horizon to determine the foot of the vertical circle through a body being observed. Also called ROCKING THE SEXTANT.

A sextant provided with a gyroscope to indicate the horizontal

Generally, the interface or transition zone between two air masses of different density. Since the temperature distribution is the most important regulator of atmospheric density, a front almost invariably separates air masses of different temperature. Along with the basic density criterion and the common temperature criterion, many other features may distinguish a front, such as a pressure trough, a change in wind direction, a moisture discontinuity, and certain characteristic cloud and precipitation forms. The term front is used ambiguously for: frontal zone, the three-dimensional zone or layer of large horizontal density gradient, bounded by frontal surfaces across which the horizontal density gradient is discontinuous (frontal surface usually refers specifically to the warmer side of the frontal zone); and surface front, the line of intersection of a frontal surface or frontal zone with the earth's surface or less frequently, with a specified constant-pressure surface.

A fix determined from horizontal sextant angles between objects poorly located.