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G'day Frank,

Actually I had tried a few graphic methods including Bruno Ortlep's
"Longitude Without Time" which is described in ION (Vol 18 No. 1, spring
1969). While the graphic methods are interesting, their accuracy leaves much
to be desired.

In the early 1990's a friend from Annapolis sent to me, a lengthy
description of clearing the lunar distance, which also included pages of
formulas and examples of mathematical computations. It is worth mentioning
that my friend Paul was a brilliant lawyer by profession and also a
brilliant navigator and mariner. Lunars were the equivalent of "chump
change" to Paul, but when I looked at his notes, I just threw up my hands in
despair and thanked the Gods for chronometers. I hasten to admit that my
aversion to lunars was more based on laziness than anything else.

Then Bruce Stark came along with his tables. I worked with them for a few
months and became an instant convert including chanting the mantras and
adopting the 10 mile stare of the lunarian.

I agree with you that Stark's tables brought lunars to navigators who may
not have heard of them before, however, I would also venture to guess that
the tables brought lunars to navigators who knew about them already but were
either too lazy (like me) or too intimidated by the process to bother
attempting them.

I think that Bruce Stark is one brilliant individual to have come up with
such a great piece of work. Quite frankly, I feel downright stupid when I
consider that there are people on this list who can do this sort of thing
while I stumble on with the basics.

Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 8:05 PM
Subject: [NavList 4412] Re: Bruce Stark's Lunar tables. was [NavList 4227]
Re: Lunars Tables


>
> Robert E., you wrote:
> "I remain a strong booster of those tables although admittedly, I have not
> done a lunar in a long while."
>
> This has me thinking again about the significance of Bruce's tables. I'm
> guessing that you have not tried many other methods of clearing lunars,
> and
> also that there really were no alternative methods readily available to
> you
> when you were trying them ten years ago. Is that right? As I mentioned
> briefly last month, I think this is the un-sung impact of his tables: they
> brought lunars to navigation enthusiasts when lunars were almost
> completely
> unknown, or were known only by reputation.
>
> -FER
>
>
> >
>



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