A NEW AND ABRIDGED METHOD OF FINDING 
THE LOCUS OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 
AND THE COMPASS ERROR. 
BY 
G. W. Littlehales. 
[Read before the Society October 10, 1903.] 
To make an intelligent introduction of the solution which 
is to be disclosed, it will be of advantage to set forth briefly 
some principles that are well recognized among navigators 
and geographers. Defining the sub-celestial place of any 
body in the firmament as the point of intersection with the 
surface of the earth of a straight line drawn from the celes¬ 
tial body to the center of the earth, it will be evident that 
the geographical position of the sub-celestial place is in a 
latitude equal to the declination of the celestial body and in 
a longitude equal 
to the hour-angle 
of the celestial 
body from the 
prime meridian, 
and that the celes¬ 
tial bod}^ is in the 
zenith of the sub¬ 
celestial place. 
In figure 1 take 
A to be the sub¬ 
celestial place of a 
celestial body 
whose declination 
is equal to the lat¬ 
itude of A and Figure 1. 
34—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 14. 
