If you haven't already spotted it, Tristan has recently posted a good natural navigation picture puzzle for you to test your NN skills - full background to this picture to be found here.
This one has me stumped. Oman is near the equator and it looks like you can see stars moving around both celestial poles in the photo. So I would deduce the camera is facing approximately east or west or anywhere on a line through the zenith linking east and west. It could be pointing straight up!
Well, I was kind of right. Apparently the correct answer is slightly south of west. You were supposed to work out what constellation was in the photo to work out the answer! I only know two constellations and one of them was in the photo but I still can't see it even though I now know what it is. I guess if I ever go camping in Oman (highly unlikely) I will just have to take a compass.
I think the constellation was just a bonus point thing - indeed a challenging question would be from the photo time deduce the month or vice versa but luckily that wasn't as I'd struggle with that (or fire up some astronomy program which is definitely not NN)
I just said westish which I think is close enough. The key bit was the star lines to the left were circling a point below the horizon while the lines to the right circling a point above the horizon.
As Oman is just in the Northern hemisphere the point to the left must be south and the point to the right north and hence we are looking west.
4 comments:
This one has me stumped. Oman is near the equator and it looks like you can see stars moving around both celestial poles in the photo. So I would deduce the camera is facing approximately east or west or anywhere on a line through the zenith linking east and west. It could be pointing straight up!
There must be some other clue I am missing.
My lips are sealed - all entries must be made to Tristan direct at the NN web site.
Well, I was kind of right. Apparently the correct answer is slightly south of west. You were supposed to work out what constellation was in the photo to work out the answer! I only know two constellations and one of them was in the photo but I still can't see it even though I now know what it is. I guess if I ever go camping in Oman (highly unlikely) I will just have to take a compass.
I think the constellation was just a bonus point thing - indeed a challenging question would be from the photo time deduce the month or vice versa but luckily that wasn't as I'd struggle with that (or fire up some astronomy program which is definitely not NN)
I just said westish which I think is close enough. The key bit was the star lines to the left were circling a point below the horizon while the lines to the right circling a point above the horizon.
As Oman is just in the Northern hemisphere the point to the left must be south and the point to the right north and hence we are looking west.
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