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George and others,

There are some additional details in the "newsblog" on the Sky and Telescope web site:




----- Original Message ----
> From: George Huxtable 
> To: NavList@fer3.com
> Sent: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 8:58:07 AM
> Subject: [NavList 5740] Dating Caesar's first incursion to Britain
>
>
>
> The following message, taken from the Hastro-L (history of astronomy)
> mailing list, through a roundabout route, may appeal to those Navlist
> members who have recently had enough of celestial navigation.
>
> This one  relates mainly to tidal matters in navigation (so is indirectly,
> celestial also). It appeareed a week or so ago
>
> You need to look at the press release and blog, referred to near the end, to
> make much sense of it, but that may be worth doing, if you are interested in
> such things.
>
> From the information available to me to date, I am not very impressed by the
> researchers'  methodology, but that may be unfair, because I haven't read
> the actual article in the August Sky & Telescope, which is probably
> available in the US by now. All I have to go on as yet are those web pages.
>
> Which leads me to a request. If some Navlist member reads Sky & Telescope,
> and has access to that August issue, I wonder if he would kindly take a look
> at it, and let me know the actual dates and times of those August 2007
> observations that were made at Deal and at Dover. I'm not asking for a scan
> of the pages (though wouldn't mind getting one....).
>
> Here follows the forwarded message. Sorry it's going to be a bit chopped-up.
>
> George.
>
> contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
> or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
> or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
>
> ===========================================
>
> THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM SKY & TELESCOPE MAGAZINE, IN
> CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION.
> (FORWARDING DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL
> SOCIETY.)  Steve Maran, American Astronomical Society
> steve.maran@aas.org  1-202-328-2010 x116
>
> Astronomers Re-Date Caesar's Invasion of Britain
>
> June 30, 2008
>
> Contacts:
> Donald W. Olson, Department of Physics, Texas State University
>      1-512-245-2131 , dolson@txstate.edu
> Roger W. Sinnott, Senior Editor, Sky & Telescope
>     1-617-864-7360 x2146, rsinnott@skyandtelescope.com
>
> Researchers from Texas State University have revised the date when
> Julius Caesar
> invaded Britain in 55 BC, a transformational event in world history. Despite
> what most history books state, Caesar could not have landed on August 26-27.
> "The English Channel was flowing the wrong way," says team leader Donald W.
> Olson, a tide expert. He and fellow professor Russell Doescher, aided by
> astronomy honors students Kellie Beicker and Amanda Gregory, reached this
> conclusion during an expedition to England's southern coast last summer.
> Earlier, Olson had identified August 2007 as rare opportunity to settle the
> longstanding dispute among history scholars and scientists concerning
> Caesar's
> landing. During that month, complex tidal factors involving the Moon and Sun
> would unfold in a near-perfect replay of those in August of 55 BC.
> "We realized we could go out in a boat and observe the current for
> ourselves,"
> Olson explains. "The year 1901 would have been just as good for this
> experiment, but no one noticed."
>
> According to Olson's team, Caesar's invasion fleet must have arrived four
> days
> earlier - August 22-23 in 55 BC - to have acquired a suitable northeastward
> current. The revised date reconciles an ancient record of a "falling
> tide" with
> Caesar's own description of the coastline topography as he moved his
> fleet along
> the white cliffs of Dover. The Texas researchers present their findings in
> the August 2008 Sky & Telescope magazine.
>
> Invasion Fleet Crosses the Channel
> When his 100 warships carrying two Roman legions (perhaps 10,000 men)
> approached
> the white cliffs, Caesar noticed a multitude of javelin-wielding
> Celtic warriors
> lined up along the ridge and decided to look for a better landing spot. He
> ordered his fleet to move along the coast, and after about seven
> miles they came to "an open and flat shore."
>
> But which way did Caesar turn - left or right - and when did he actually set
> foot on British soil? For centuries, these two questions have vexed not only
> historians, but the residents of coastal towns vying for the claim of
> "Caesar was here."
>
> Caesar mentioned unexpectedly strong tides, a full Moon, and an ocean
> current
> that changed direction in mid-afternoon. These clues even led famous
> astronomers
> Edmond Halley and George Airy to weigh in - but they disagreed with
> each other's
> conclusions. The debate about the date and place of Caesar's landing has
> raged ever since.
>
> The Texas team's revised date, August 22-23, gives Caesar the ocean current
> he
> needed to maneuver right, proceed seven miles, and land with a
> falling tide near
> present-day Deal. That's the beach preferred by most historians but
> rejected by
> tide experts in the past. What's more, a modified reading of Caesar's
> reference
> to the "night of a full Moon" also leads to the August 22-23 date.
>
> "The scientists were right about the tidal streams," Olson says, "and so
> were
> the historians about the landing site. With our new result and our new date,
> everything is reconciled."
>
> "I had a blast watching these guys in action," says Sky & Telescope Senior
> Editor Roger Sinnott, who joined the Texas State expedition last summer.
> "One
> day they were using GPS to measure their small boat's drift off Dover
> harbor,
> and on another they were tossing apples from the end of the long Deal pier
> to
> see which way the current went." Sinnott has been Olson's editor on two
> dozen
> past projects for Sky & Telescope since 1987.
>
> The Texas researchers have also studied paintings of night scenes by Van
> Gogh
> and Munch, dated photographs of the Moon by Ansel Adams, and
> interpreted cryptic
> lines in a Shakespearean play. Closely related to their work on
> Caesar is their
> earlier research on how the Moon and tides affected the World War II
> amphibious
> landings on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa and in Normandy on D-day.
>
> Caesar's historic landing in 55 BC was the Roman Empire's first
> excursion north
> of France, literally to the fringe of the then-known world. When he
> crossed the
> English Channel again the following summer with a 10-times-larger
> fleet, it was
> very much like a D-day in reverse.
>
> In their Sky & Telescope article, the Texas State researchers think they've
> resolved an age-old debate: When and where did Caesar first land in Britain?
>
> Note to Editors/Producers: Images and a parallel release from Texas State
> University are at
> http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2008/06/Caesar062308.html
>   or you may contact press officer Jayme Blaschke at jb71@txstate.edu
>
> Roger Sinnott's blog relating to this story appears at
> http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/21410774.html
>
>
>




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