Polar Alignment?

[Herishi]

Will polar alignment be affected by the recent shift in the earth's axis?

I know the earth's axis has only shifted by a small amount but over the distances this could be a massive error.

Steve

[JKB]

Well I have calculated.

The earths circumference is 24901.55 miles which is 1577762.21 inches

That equates to 4382.67 inches per degree.

So a move of 10 inches would equate to 0.002 degrees.

As we align to the celestial sphere I don't think I will be too worried

HTH and please correct me if I'm wrong!

[Thomas]

Unfortunately, you have miscalculated by a factor of a thousand. The motion of ten inches is only about 0.000002 degrees. This, however, is completely irrelevant, since the Earth's axis of rotation can be up to 45 feet from its mean position due to a couple of nutations. Furthermore the mean position is migrating at about 8 inches per year, in the direction, at the North pole, of approximately 80 degrees west.

[JKB]

Thomas,

Thankyou I did miss a couple of 0's but did it in a hurry whilst teaching 30 kids! And theres me with the degree in Astrophysics too