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Rundirt Home | Santiago Peak at Summitpost |
Thanks to Wayne Pyle for providing this information and thanks to Mirza Todorovich for sharing this photo.
The attached listing shows the names, elevations, the directions (true and magnetic north), distances, and how many degrees peaks are below eye level from Santiago Peak. Wayne used spherical trigonometry for the computations.
Wayne says, "To effectively use the listing, you must be on the summit of Santiago Peak (either on your feet or on a map!), as all the figures radiate from the top. I also recommend a sighting compass, such as the engineer-type compasses that Wal Mart sells for about $8. There are many compasses, and all of them seem to have anomalies. If you do any sightings, pick known peaks first to find out if your compass varies from my figures. If your compass differs, add or subtract the difference to my figures."
For an explanation of the calculations, see Dr. Tom Chester's site. (You may have to leave off the "view_params.html" at the end of the URL to see his explanations, but go to "view_params.html" to get the write-ups.)
The attached listing is for mountains within several 100 miles. This does not mean, however, that you can see all of them from the top of the Santiago Peak. Closer peaks, ridges and ranges may block mountains behind them. To help figure this out yourself, you need to know how to use the eye-level readings, which are peak-centered (which means a front mountain can have a very large summit area or summit ridge, blocking lots of mountains, but you would not be able to necessarily tell this from my eye-level reading).
The eye-level readings are in degrees to two decimal places. "0.00" readings would be exactly eye level. Plus-readings are above eye level, and negative readings are below eye level. If two mountains are in the same compass direction, say 45.1 degrees, and one mountain is 5.0 miles away with a eye-level reading of -0.15 degrees, and the other mountain is 10.0 miles away with a eye-level reading of -0.16 degrees, you probably would not be able to see the mountain that is 10 miles away--it would be blocked by the one only 5 miles away. The 10-mile mountain would be 0.01 degrees below the 5-mile mountain. However, if the 10-mile mountain had an eye-level reading of -0.10 degrees, then it's peak could be seen, as it would appear to be higher than the 5-mile mountain. I hope I'm not confusing you on this, but this is important for figuring out which mountains are visible in your panorama. If the 5-mile mountain came to a sharp peak, and the 10-mile mountain had a broad summit, but lower than the 5-mile mountain, then you could see the 10-mile mountain, but not its exact peak location.
To get a list go here Sightings from Santiago Peak for a .pdf file.