edit: it only took ten posts for me to see what someone was trying to say here. Totally basic DUH mistake at the get-go.

original text of this post:

Well, it's interesting to me, anyway.

I've had to provide some DirecTV aiming information for Cordova, Alaska. I found the zip code; looked in my HR24 for the coordinates; found that azimuth is given in compass direction, i.e. re magnetic north (106 degrees, which for DirecTV equals 16 degrees E of due South); converted magnetic north to reference true north; and concluded that the dish should be pointed 3 degrees west of due South.

Any serious boat owners out there? Navigators? The problem is, it occurred to me today, that if one pointed due south from there, one would point to a location in the sky at -145 degrees, while the satellites are, for sake of argument, at -101. (Minus indicates west here.) And three degrees west of due south is NOT closer to 101!

So is this at all possible? One of many reasons I'm not a rocket scientist is that I cannot envision, three dimensionally, tangents to spheres crossing orbit lines. The fact that the sun shines on the north sides of buildings here in CA at 34 degrees N both in the morning and before sunset baffles me enough to wonder if my 3 degrees W of S is possible.

In New York, dishes point west of south. In California, they point east of south. In the middle of the country they point more or less due south. How could being at 63 degrees latitude make the correct azimuth for the dish be the same as some place east of Texas?

Any ideas?


edit: added "re Alaska" to thread title.