Ideally they should be measured from ⅓ up the side dead centre of the enclosure. However most over head heat sources emit long wave IR. This means like a light it travels from the face out in all directions and the ambient temp should not be in line of sight (straight line) of the heater. Sometimes this means blocking the thermometer with a some paper (white paper) It is shocking how much this can change a reading. My arboreal enclosures will alter 8ºF just by shielding the thermometer from the RHP. Would this happen with ambient temps? No paper will not stop air from moving. You don't have to constantly monitor them just check during set up and then periodically. I do every week.
It is likely your ambients are 77ºF add the error to the thermometer +/-2ºF (you said you had an accurite? is it one of the newer ones?) so 75-79ºF somewhere inside here likely (the older models was +/-2ºC close to 4ºF in that case 73-81ºF). Personally I hate seeing ambients below 75ºF for long, if this is the true ambient temp you are closer to one end of the range adding a couple of degrees would buy more breathing room.
There is a theory (unverified at this point) that low ambients inconjuction with higher hot spots are responsible for burns. The ambient air temp is a contributing factor in thermal regulation. It is known that animals kept with very low ambients regardless of the hot spot being spot on often get sick. It is also clear that animals can be kept successfully with no hot spot at all. It is likely that ambients are more important that any other temp.
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