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SURVEYING Astronomy&Triangulation
SURVEYING Astronomy&Triangulation
SURVEYING Astronomy&Triangulation
Solar Time
The sun is the most commonly used reference point
for reckoning time, and time reckoned by the sun is solar
time. Time reckoned according to the position of the
actual physical sun is solar apparent time. When the
sun is directly over a meridian, it is noontime, local
apparent time, along that meridian. At the same instant
it is midnight, local apparent time, on the meridian 180
away from that meridian, on the opposite side of the
earth.
The time required for a complete revolution of the
earth on its axis is a constant 24 hours with regard to a
particular point on the earth; however, this time varies
slightly with regard to the points position with relation
to the actual sun. Therefore, days reckoned by apparent
time (that is, the position of the actual sun) vary slightly
in length. This difficulty can be avoided by reckoning
time according to a mean position of the sun, and this
is called mean time. By mean time the interval from
noon to noon along any meridian is always the
same-24 hours.
We know that the earth, not the sun, actually moves,
but for the purposes of this explanation, we will assume
that the earth is motionless, with the heavenly bodies
moving westward around it. As the sun moves along its
course, it takes noontime with it, so to speak. In other
words, when the mean sun is on a particular meridian,
it is noontime along that meridian, not yet noon at any
point west of that meridian, and already past noon at any
point east of that meridian.
This means that, by local mean time, the time is
different at any two points lying in different longitudes.
To avoid the obvious disadvantages of a system in which
the time is different at the opposite ends of a short street
running east-west, the nations of the earth have
generally established zone or standard time.
Zone Time
TIME
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Celestial system of
Coordinates
GREENWICH HOUR ANGLE. The coordinate for a heavenly body that corresponds to longitude
is called the Greenwich hour angle (GHA). The
Greenwich hour angle is the angular distance from the
Greenwich meridian to the meridian of the heavenly
body. It is always measured westward from the
Greenwich meridian and is expressed in degrees from
0 to 360. Another point to remember is that, while the
longitude of a point on the earth always remains the
same, the GHA of the celestial object is constantly
increasing as the body moves westward on the celestial
sphere.
Horizon System of
Coordinates
To connect the celestial and terrestrial coordinates,
you must have a third system, descriptive of the
observers position. The fundamental reference of this
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Astronomical Triangle
May the GHA listed for the sun is 45054.8. For the extra
2318S you turn to a table of increments and
corrections in the back of the book. Table 15-2 shows
the relevant page of the table. Under 23m and beside 18s
Astronomical Tables
Used by Surveyors
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Table 15-1.Sun and Moon Daily Page from the Nautical Almanac
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Table 15-2.- Page from the Nautical Almanac (Table of Increments and Corrections)
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Table 15-3.-Star and Planet Daily Page from the Nautical Almanac
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Declination
The GP you see on the small sphere in figure 15-5
corresponds to the stars location on the celestial sphere.
The letters GP stand for geographic position and
represent a point where a line drawn from the center of
the earth to the body would intersect the earths surface.
The latitude of a point on the terrestrial sphere is
measured from the equator northward or southward
along the points meridian to a maximum of 90.
Declination of a body on the celestial sphere is measured
in exactly the same wayfrom the celestial equator
(equinoctial) northward or southward along the bodys
hour circle.The polar distance is the number of degrees,
minutes, and tenths of minutes of arc between the
heavenly body and the elevated pole. The elevated pole
is the one above the horizon; in other words, the one with
the same name as your latitude.
From the foregoing description, it follows that the
polar distance of a body whose declination has the same
name (north or south) as the elevated pole is always 90
minus its declination (6). Polar distance of a body whose
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703.7
Corrected declination
213656.4
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where:
Z = azimuth of the sun measured
clockwise from north
LHA = local hour angle of the sun
6 = declination of the sun
a = latitude of the observer
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Table 15-5.GHA for the Sun and Polaris for O Hours Universal Time
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The following calculations are for the field notes shown in figure 15-14:
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Solving for Z,
Note that LHA is between 180 and 360 and that Z is positive; therefore, the normalized correction equals 0.
Solving for h,
As shown in figure 15-14, the left edge of the sun (indicated by the symbols in the point column) was pointed both
direct and reverse. That being the case, the correction dH is added to the average horizontal angle as follows:
Solving for the azimuth of line AB (Set 1), you obtain the following:
Now, if you use the same calculation procedures to obtain the azimuth of line AB for Sets 2 and 3, you find the
following:
If you desire a bearing, you know that an azimuth of 912403 equates to a bearing of S883557E.
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OBSERVATIONS ON POLARIS
OR OTHER STARS
For most land surveying, the determination of
astronomic azimuth by observing the sun is sufficient;
however, in some cases, the required degree of accuracy
may be such that observation of Polaris or another star
may be required. Several observation methods and
calculation procedures can be applied to determine
azimuth from Polaris; however, we will not discuss
them here. Instead you should refer to commercial
publications, such as Surveying Theory and Practice,
by Davis, Foote, Anderson, and Mikhail, or Elementary
Surveying, by Wolf and Brinker. You should also refer
to these or other similar publications for a more
thorough discussion of field astronomy in general.
This ends our discussion of field astronomy. Now
lets take a brief look at a new development in surveying
that is related to field astronomy and to triangulation
which is the final topic in this chapter.
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TRIANGULATION
In your previous studies you learned that a principal
method of locating points in horizontal control is
traversing. As you know, traversing requires that
distances and angles be measured at all stations. In this
chapter you will learn another method. This
method triangulation requires that distances be
measured only at the beginning, at specified intervals,
and at the end of the survey.
Both the triangulation method and the traverse
method of control are based on the character of the
terrain, and not on the degree of precision to be attained;
that is, each system is equally precise under the
conditions in which each is used. Discussion of
triangulation in this chapter normally is limited to
triangles having sides less than 3,000 yards in length and
to triangulation nets that do not extend more than 25,000
yards.
The triangulation method is used principally in
situations where the chaining of distances is impossible
or infeasible except with the use of electronic measuring
devices. Suppose you want to locate a point, say, point
C, which is offshore; and the measured baseline, AB, is
located on the shore. In this situation the triangulation
method is used because the chaining of distances is
impossible. The chaining of long distances, especially
in rough country, also is not always possible; therefore,
triangulation is used to establish horizontal control in
large-area surveys.
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Chain of Polygons
You can see how the length of any line shown can
be computed by two different routes. Assume that AB is
the base line, and you wish to determine the length of
line EF. You can compute this length by solving
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for AC and CD, and triangle BCD for BD and CD. The
solutions for each of the overlapping triangles are
summarized as follows:
Targets
As you can see, for each of the unknown sides of
the quadrilateral (AC, CD, and BD), values have been
obtained by two different routes. You can also see that
there are discrepancies in the values, almost the same
for AC and BD and smaller for CD. All the discrepancies
shown are much larger than would be tolerable in actual
practice; they reflect the high imprecision of the original
protractor measurement of the angles. The example has
been given here only to illustrate the basic principles and
procedures of chain-of-quadrilateral triangulation.
Later in this chapter you will see how observed angles
(measured in the field with the required precision) are
adjusted to ensure that values computed by different
routes will be practically close enough to each other to
satisfy precision requirements.
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Figure 15-23.Heliotrope.
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Supports (Towers)
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3. Measurement of angles
4. Determination of direction (or azimuth)
5. Base line measurement
6. Computations
Reconnaissance
The first consideration with regard to the selection
of stations is, of cause, intervisibility. An observation
between two stations that are not intervisible is
impossible. Next comes accessibility. Obviously again,
a station that is inaccessible cannot be occupied and
between two stations otherwise equally feasible, the one
that provides the easier access is preferable.
The next consideration involves strength of figure.
In triangulation, the distances computed (that is, the
lengths of triangle sides) are computed by way of the
law of sines. Ths more nearly equal the angles of a
triangle are, the less will be the ratio of error in the sine
computations. The ideal triangle, then would be one in
which each of the three angles measured 60; this
triangle would, of course, be both equiangular and
equilateral.
Values computed from the sines of angles near 0
or 180 are subject to large ratios of error. As a general
rule, you should select stations that will provide
triangles in which no angle is smaller than 30 or larger
than 150.
Signal Erection
After the stations have been selected, the
triangulation signals or triangulation towers should be
erected When you erect triangulation towers or signals,
remember that it is imperative for these stations to be
intervisible. It is also important that the target be large
enough to be seen at a distance; that is, the color of the
target must be selected for good visibility against the
background where it will be viewed. When observations
are made during daylight hours with the sun shining, a
heliotrope is a very effective target. When triangulation
surveys are made at night, lights must be used for
targets. Therefore, target sets with built-in illuminations
are very effective.
Measurement of Angles
The precision with which angles in the system are
measured will depend on the order of precision
prescribed for the survey. The precision of a
triangulation system may be classified according to (1)
the average error of closure of the triangles in the system
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Figure 15-28.Quadrilateral.
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It follows that
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(log sin 1 + log sin 3 + log sin 5 + log sin7) - (log sin 2
+ log sin 4 + log sin 6 + log sin 8) = 0
Suppose, now, that after the second figure adjustment, the values of the angles shown in figure 15-28 are
as follows:
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.
The sum of the angles that make up each of the
overlapping triangles within the quadrilateral is as
follows:
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QUESTIONS
Q1.
Q2.
Q3.
Q4.
Q5.
Q6.
Q7.
Q8.
Figure 15-32.-Quadrilateral.
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