Before I make one, does such a product exist that is basically like a rifle scope combined with a level?
The usage is you put it on the object and you look through it to a reference point to ensure that the object is perfectly in line with the direction of the reference.
Like say the object is 30 inches wide, and your reference is a mile away, you set the level on the object, look through it, adjust the object till its lined up. Ez way to align the face of the object to an azimuth angle with extreme accuracy or what?
Id ask /k/
If so, especially considering the accuracy you describe, seems highly specialized not so much a home made thang.
Theres self levelling lasers and transits and such, but ur lookin for frickin surveyer accuracy. Seems like a big ask.
yeah unfortunately I cant find anything when I quickly search up surveying gear.
I dont think it would be too hard to make if I build it in a way I can zero it out by simply flipping it over and turning the scope adjustment until it points at the same spot when flipped either way.
the object has to be within 2.5 degrees azimuth but I'd rather try for 0.25.
That's a surveying transit, more or less.
This. Have heard it called a builder's level as well. You can find ones from the 50's from Sears for like, $30.
I'm reading and re-reading your post, trying to visualize what you mean.
What's the level for?
You just want to align nearby object with a faraway point ... your idea of using a tube or pipe makes sense.
But it's only going to be as accurate as how well you attach your tube to your nearby object.
Because all you're really accomplishing is aligning the tube with the faraway point, and hoping the nearby object is aligned with the tube.
A long enough straightedge would be as accurate as a tube, and maybe easier to align with your nearby object.
A framing square with a long straightedge would work if you're trying to make your nearby object perpendicular to the faraway point.
But I don't understand what the level would be for.
>Before I make one, does such a product exist that is basically like a rifle scope combined with a level?
Yes. Look into surveyor's level. YOu can get handheld ones.
>handheld ones
Called a level sight.
Huh. Looks like that would work in a pinch. Ideally I'd want some magnification but I don't think it's required for the accuracy I'd need.
I thought of a laser at first, simply splitting the beam using an equal width blade on each end of the face and aiming the laser till its in line.
Problem is I have to work in the day and. I'm can't be fricked to set up a target in close range to do that.
We don't exist on the same level friend
Can't use bubble levels on flat earth
No gravity
It's called a theodolite
Just buy a Las err
A transit level is pretty much exactly what you're describing. However they are usually only good for a few hundred feet at most, at a mile away you're not going to have the resolution to discern 30", especially when factoring in curvature of earth, and light or haze interference over the distance. A good transit level has an accuracy of maybe 1/8" at 100'. So for 1 mile, that's an accuracy of 7 or 8 inches, but probably more since it may not be a linear degradation of accuracy. You may be able to do better with electronic laser type instrumentation but then you're getting into the really expensive stuff.
>earths curvature
>affecting your sight for 1 mile
dafuq?
Yes. If you have a viewpoint that is tangent with the surface of the earth (meaning it is "level" at that point), then what that viewpoint intersects at 1 mile away is around 66' higher in elevation from the surface than the viewpoint is. And that's not even accounting for any rises and dips in the terrain. All of this needs to be taken into account when performing long distance surveying.
I like collecting multimeters and other industrial gear, what's the best way to get into surveying equipment?
>what's the best way to get into surveying equipment?
I don't know, I don't do surveying. Just explaining the rather simple geometry of it and how curvature of earth effects it. But I guess if you want to dabble in it, best thing to do would be to buy some used transit equipment off ebay or something. You can even get new lower end stuff for a few hundred bucks.
So to get an accurate reading of an object's height at 1 mile, you would need to tilt your viewpoint down from level by 0.725 degrees to make the base reference the same at both ends.
But as you can imagine, 0.725 degrees is a very small angle. This makes measuring an object with a transit at that distance incredibly impractical since a tiny fraction of a degree of error will translate into a massive error in the measurement.
Differential GPS has made long-distance surveying so much more accurate, and easy.
>0.725 degrees is a very small angle
43 arcminutes? That's a positively massive angle in surveying terms. Curvature of the Earth is only about 35 arcseconds per mile. Most equipment nowadays has accuracy of 5 arcseconds or better (usually 3" or 1").
Also, the problem is someone misplaced his decimal when he drew the circle and made it only about 40 miles in radius instead of almost 4000 miles.
Still, you're going to have issues seeing the target at that distance (a mile). Just a bit of heat distortion along the ground will wreck your vision, to say nothing of what vibrations to the instrument itself would do.
Leica/Hexagon, Trimble/Spectra, and Topcon are the main survey gear manufacturers that I know of; you may be able to find a dealer near you with used or rentals. Careful about buying from fleabay -- no guarantee when anything from there was last calibrated or even still works, and almost anything on there will be hard to get parts for.
66 feet at one mile?
no, you're mistaken.
It's 0.66 feet at one mile ... about eight inches.
hold a level to your eye and look at something a mile away ... do you really think your "level" would be 66 feet above the object?
"level" drops 8 inches at one mile.
Are you sure? I just plotted it again, and a 1 mile long line that starts tangent to a circle with a radius of 3,958.8 miles has an end point that is 66' away from the circle. It's very simple geometry, I don't see how this could be wrong, especially not by a factor of 100.
You're obviously fricking up quite severely somewhere.
Do the math and figure it out.
another autist chiming in here. using pythagorean theorem it's 0.667 feet above the surface of the earth. the only difference vs your pic is that this is along a line thru the center of the earth, a trivial difference.
c = sqrt(a*a + b*b)
a = 5280 feet
b = 5280*3959 feet
height above surface = c - b = 0.66668 feet
Earth's radius:
3958.8 miles x 5280 feet in a mile = 20,902,464 feet
Or 250,829,568 inches
So your 250,842,240 inches is about right
IDK your software is fricking it up somehow.
Pythagorean Theorem guy has it right.
If your triangle is 5280 feet by 20,900,000 feet ...
sqrt (52802 + 20,900,0002) = 20,900,000.666 (your hypotenuse is about two thirds of a foot longer than your long leg)
fricking PrepHole won't let me do the superscript "2" square symbol
>sqrt (52802 + 20,900,0002) = 20,900,000.666
is supposed to be
sqrt (5280^2 + 20,900,000^2) = 20,900,000.666
1 second is 30 yards at a mile.
Excuse me, 10 yards.
1 minute at 1000 yards is 10". Yes, I'm rounding it's really like 10.4", I can't remember the exact number, I'm used shooting with open sights mostly so a half inch didn't mean a lot that far away. So at a mile a minute is 17.6". Divide by 60 for a second and you get about .3".
Reticle level
OP already has an azimuth degree, the hard math is already over.
Simply use a sighting compass to pick the reference point precisely 90 degrees from the intended direction and aim for that.
God damn it OP you attracted all the surveyor autists on the board like shit to flies.
Blessed thread btw