Slawomir K. Grzechnik wrote:

> Where did you get these formulae from? I have used for ages another one
>
> dip['] = 1.76 * sqrt( a[m] ) or its older equivalent
> dip['] = 0.97 * sqrt( a[ft] )
>
> where a is height of eye and units are given in bracket angles and ' stands
> for minute of arc rather than foot. The formulae include Earth curvature and
> mean terrestrial refraction for standard pressure 760 mm Hg (1013.2 mb or hP)
> air temp. +10 C water temp. +10 C (guess formulae may be used on land as
> well)
>
> The result should be corrected for temperatures and pressure if you are able
> to measure those, not that hard after all. "My" formulae are cited in manuals
> of navigation and Alamanachs together with tables and correction tables for
> temperatures and pressure. So where did you get "yours" from?

To complicate matters even further, the revised edition of the _Explanatory
Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac_ (1992) in fact recommends the following
correction for computing the true altitude of a celestial body near the horizon
(cf. p. 484):

 - 2.12 * sqrt(a[m]) or
 - 1.17 * sqrt(a[ft])

As explained on pp. 488-489, when calculating the true altitude of a celestial
body near the horizon, in addition to ordinary dip (for which the constants
1.76 [m] or 0.97 [ft] are cited) an additional correction of 0.37 * sqrt
(a[m]), or 0.20 sqrt(a[ft]), has to be applied.

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