Re: [cayugabirds-l] Decimal degrees
The metric Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates were pretty convenient for pinpointing locations on printed USGS topos, as UTM grid ticks are shown in the margins. The block grid of the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas follows UTM. I still have a few USGS sheets on which I drew the BBA grid, and I did the same in my old DeLorme's Atlas. But for casual birding navigation I vote for decimal lat & long. -Geo Geo Kloppel Bowmaker & Restorer 227 Tupper Road Spencer NY 14883 607 564 7026 g...@cornell.edu geoklop...@gmail.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
Re: [cayugabirds-l] Decimal degrees
What it really boils down to is how accurate you want to get. I f you start at the extreme 1 second is approximately 90 feet give or take depending on your location. That means that one minute is roughly equal to 5,400 feet and one degree 324,000 feet. So if you take 1/10th of a degree you get 32,400 feet, 1/100th 3,240 feet and 1/1000 or .000 you get 324 feet. So you see if you are off by .01 degrees you are a half of a mile either way. Personally this is not what I would call accurate enough. The problem with using the easier method of decimal degrees is unless you go to three places you loose accuracy, and even then you have an error factor of + or - 90 feet which means you are within 180 feet of where you need to be. And all of this does not take in the built in error factors in the GPS system. Bottom line for me I would go for degrees, minutes, seconds. Most GPS systems can handle either format. Carl "For those who fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never know" -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Decimal degrees
I would STRONGLY advocate for decimal degrees. That does not mean degrees plus decimal minutes by the way. I'm engaged in building a database for our worldwide deployments of acoustic listening devices and believe me, the 17 different ways people write down locations are a nightmare to encode logically as well as prone to all kinds of errors. Decimal Degrees is what Google Maps uses and what works best in a sortable list. Decimal degrees also means no use (or misuse) of Northing-Easting style references such as 82°0'0"W instead of -82.. Should there be spaces between each part? Are those straight foot and inch marks or curly typography quotes? Does the W come first or last? Ugh! In any given list, you'll find all permutations. Besides, how many people know how to type the degree symbol? On a Mac, it's Shift-Option-asterisk, by the way. (:-) Here is one of many online calculators to convert from DMS or DM.m: http://www.satsig.net/degrees-minutes-seconds-calculator.htm In my experience, most GPS devices can report out in more than one mode. Just explore the preferences or settings menu. __ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
