Celestial Navigation · Fix Quality
If three star LOPs do not meet at a point but form a small triangle ('cocked hat'), the navigator should:
- ADiscard all three sights
- BAverage only two of them
- CAssume the first sight is correct
- DTake the fix near the center, and treat a large triangle as a sign of error to investigate✓ Correct
Explanation
A small cocked hat is normal from minor random errors; the fix is taken within it (often the center). A large triangle signals a blunder — a misread time, wrong star, or arithmetic error — and the sights are rechecked.
Authority: Bowditch (Pub. No. 9), evaluating the fix
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