Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Space Navigation / Chap. 7 p. 63
SPACE TECHNOLOGY each capsule flies around the Earth maintaining its attitude by rotating
once each orbit in relation to the surface of Earth instead of to the rest of the universe
as it must actually do.
Michael Collins said the stars are unchanging. So unchanging that, to this day, we can
only directly measure the distance to less than ten thousand stars out of the billions that
surround us. This measurement can be made only because of the difference in apparent
position of a star in relation to stars that are optically close to it but which are far more
distant from Earth. Only after the Earth has moved 186 million miles to the other side of the
sun in its orbit can the movement be measured.
This angular shift is called the parallax of a star. It's so small that it can never be
measured by any device that mechanically divides the circle like a sextant or theodolite.
Parallax is measurable only by photographic methods. It can't be eyeballed. The measurement
is accomplished by optically enlarging photos taken by astronomical telescopes at each
extreme of our orbit. The photos are then compared. If a star shows any displacement the
magnified movement is delicately measured and compared to the known arc distance
separation of the adjacent stars that haven't "moved" in that same photo. The greater the
displacement (parallax), the closer the star.
Its actual distance can then be calculated by plane trigonometry, using the distance the
Earth moves in six months as the baseline (186 million miles) and the angle of displacement
measured from the photos.
Alpha Centauri, which appears to be one star seen by the naked eye, is actually a triple
star system. At 4.3 lightyears distance from Earth it has the greatest parallax of any star.
When measured by the 93 million miles the Earth moves during one half of an orbit it
shows a parallax of .75 seconds of arc.
If we tried to use the distance to the Moon (239,000-miles) as a baseline the angle would
be 389 times smaller, or .0019 seconds of arc. On page 248 the 1993 World Almanac lists
the parallax of almost 100 of the closest stars, and the smallest parallax listed is .01 seconds
of arc. So Mr. Collins, regardless of what you were told, a cross-haired sextant, couldn't
possibly have measured these angles. Nor can anyone navigate the solar system using a
mechanical division of the circle on the movement of even the closest stars.
Collins says he was thrilled when the unit flipped up its five balls in praise, but this
represented .01° accuracy — not an exceptional result by today's standards. There are 60
nautical miles to a degree and .01° equal .6-nautical miles. Many navigators on small wavetossed
boats equal this performance. The SATNAV system with its 50-meter accuracy
makes .6 nautical miles look amateurish. The new surveying SATNAV instruments claim
accuracy within inches. In the next section we will see how that .01° accuracy compares
with the rest of NASA's claims.
Collins seems to believe that his measurements resulted in a navigational fix. He says,
"For example, I was trained to navigate back from the moon by using my sextant to
measure the angles of five selected stars and the Earth's horizon; however there was no way
I could determine our position as accurately as the giant earth-based radars,..." 7
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene