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I have 3 different editions of Chauvenet's "A Manual of Spherical and
Practical Astronomy".  Let me summarize:

My old 5th edition is dated 1863 in the preface, contains a note from 1868,
and a title page date of 1903, printed by Lippincott.   It calls itself the
fifth revised and corrected edition.  It is in two volumes.  Volume 1 is the
navigation material that is of great interest to this group; it is subtitled
"Spherical Astronomy".  Volume 2 is the astronomy material that George
Huxtable referred to as not being as useful for navigators, to which I
concur except for a short chapter on sextants.  It is subtitled "Theory and
Use of Astronomical Instruments".

The Dover reprint of 1960 was done in two identical volumes to the original.
It is "an unabridged and unaltered republication of the fifth revised and
corrected edition (copyright 1891)".  They are printed in bright orange
covers and are substantially smaller than the original large hardbacks.  I
really like this Dover edition.

The Elibron reprint is not near as satisfying as the Dover.  It is a reprint
of an 1887 edition from Lippincott of London.  It is a facsimilie, rather
than a reprint.  Unfortuately it is a very dirty facsimilie, and what is
worse, volume 1 is printed in TWO volumes called Part 1 and Part 2.  I
thought I bought the two volume set but I actually only got volume one in
two parts.  Anyway, the two volumes are larger than the original volume one.

There are quite a few different editions calling themselves the "fifth
revised and corrected edition", with a variety of dates in the late 1800s.
I have not done a careful analysis to see what differs amongst them.  A
quick glance shows that they are substantially identical.

Chauvenet's work is far more mathematical than any Bowditch edition, and the
math is much more like 20th century math than other works from the period.
What I mean by that is that I can understand his notation much better than I
can other technical works from a similar period in time.

I actually like to read textbooks, so I would differ from George and say
that this work IS a good book to curl up by the fireplace with.  Perhaps not
as enjoyable as a good Patrick O'Brian read, but still a very interesting
work with the state-of-the-art in the mathematics of navigation from the
1860s.

Highly recommended.

Dan

 -----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On
Behalf Of Marc Bernstein
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 4:18 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Chauvenet


Both volumes of Chauvenet are available as reprints from Elibron

Vol 1

http://www.elibron.com/english/other/item_detail.phtml?msg_id=10020216

Vol 2

http://www.elibron.com/english/other/item_detail.phtml?msg_id=10020218

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Marc Bernstein
Denver NY
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