Allen Wrench, post: 431461, member: 6172 wrote: What are the current go-to books for GPS and/or geodesy? I need to bone up on those topics to understand them better. What would you recommend?
I still like Jan Van Sickle's "GPS for Land Surveyors". In the '90's I had a book called "basic Geodesy" by James R. Smith that was great, it explained geodesy in an understandable manner and with minimal math. It's out of print but it can be found on the internet. I've seen other books by him that seem to have supplanted that one but I haven't read any of them.
My son has a couple of good geodesy texts but they're a little more than I want to take on.
Lee D, post: 431474, member: 7971 wrote: I read this one over Memorial Day weekend, it's a great story and an easy read (took me maybe three hours), I highly recommend it.
There is an illustrated edition also that enhances the text.
Walt Robillard recommended this book many years ago. He had an association with her. Galileo's Daughter is a good read.
Here's an odd adaptation
[MEDIA=youtube]TnwjGSNHOko[/MEDIA]
FL/GA PLS., post: 431487, member: 379 wrote: [USER=7971]@Lee D[/USER]
Try this one, it's a great read.
😎
Thanks!!
Allen Wrench, post: 431461, member: 6172 wrote: What are the current go-to books for GPS and/or geodesy?
A second vote for GPS for Land Surveyors.
Mark Mayer, post: 431565, member: 424 wrote: GPS for Land Surveyors.
I picked up the Third Edition for cheap, and was quite glad it was cheap because the book was a disappointment.
There's good info in it, but it seems haphazardly assembled, a collection of snippets rather than a methodical treatment.
In many places it left me wanting more specific detail instead of generalities. So RTK has the base send some sort of info to the rover, but what does that transmitted data represent? How about more typical error budgets? That sort of thing all over the place.
I think Van Sickle was trying to keep it at a level where you didn't need to be a mathematician, physicist, or programmer to understand it. The alternatives were books like Leick's that might as well be written in Arabic.
I read it twenty years ago, I guess I should revisit it. Back then I thought it was very good.
Re: GPS For Land Surveyors
OK, it's not the definitive last word in all things GPS and geodetic control. Hey, it's only a few hundred pages long. But if you get it and read it you will know more about the subject than 90% of surveyors do.
Not to beat a dead horse, but that book came out in the early to mid 90's; RTK was in its infancy (if it existed at all) and most of the literature available on high precision GPS was highly technical in nature. Obviously, later editions addressed the evolving technology.
I loaned out my copies of both Van Sickle and Smith in the '90s and never saw either of them again. Go figure.
How about some online suggestions. Here's van Sickle's open courseware book for GEOG 863 at Penn State.
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog862/
And here is the complete listing of open courseware at Penn State: http://open.ems.psu.edu/courseware Look at the GEOG offerings.
You can just read or you can enroll. It's the best of all times for people who want to learn.
FL/GA PLS., post: 431487, member: 379 wrote: [USER=7971]@Lee D[/USER]
Try this one, it's a great read.
😎
Ordered off Amazon over the weekend can't wait to get into it.
Lee D, post: 432140, member: 7971 wrote: Ordered off Amazon over the weekend can't wait to get into it.
I suspect you will love it, unless you are a historian you are going to learn quite a lot here. I know I did! 😎
StLSurveyor, post: 425053, member: 7070 wrote: Curious if anyone on this forum would be interested in participating in a virtual book club dedicated to Land Surveying books (not text books)? It has amazed me that in all my formal surveying education classes no professor has ever attempted to teach a literature type class based on texts written by surveyors, or about surveyors or great surveying accomplishments.
May is just around the corner and I have a long list of books that I have always wanted to read - or more accurately, finish (I am always reading about 5 books).
SO....For May I will read and finish this:
For those interested lets have an informal virtual book club discussion. Perhaps we can document the discussions and apply for some PDUs hours.
Any takers?
back in the news
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40302229
N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00
PLS - IL, MO, AR, KS, MN, KY
Does everyone agree on a definition for the height of the mountain, so they know what they're measuring? Seems like it would be a bit hard to measure gravity up there to get an orthometric estimate.
FL/GA PLS., post: 431487, member: 379 wrote: [USER=7971]@Lee D[/USER]
Try this one, it's a great read.
😎
This was a good one that illustrated his mapping....along the same lines try anything by Samuel Eliot Morison
Daniel Smith Frontier Statesman... Good read. Has some of his notes in it. He was a Surveyor and Senator.... Closely tied with Andrew Jackson,
https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Smith-statesman-Walter-Durham/dp/B0006COIIW/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497638585&sr=1-7&keywords=daniel+smith+tennessee
Hard to imagine the perseverance and then to have the presence of mind to take measurements....interesting reading