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Actually, If you want to practice lunars you should try using
           a StarPilot (www.starpath.com) You enter approx time, date, Approx Pos, and

           lunar distance and the StarPilot spits out GMT.  No need to enter
           the altitude of the bodies since the StarPilot computes these for
           you.   It's alot simpler than using Starks book.

           Check out www.starpath.com for reducing Lunars with the StarPilot.

           Cheers,

           --luis

           Luis Soltero
           S/V Crystal in Transit, Belize
           StarPilot Designer
           Starpath School of Navigation.

           On Mon, 11 Sep 2000 13:25:43 -0400 Carl Herzog wrote:

           > Michael Wescott wrote:
           >
           >
           > > In practice, this is practical on ships and even small boats. Joshua
           > Slocum
           > > (the first around alone sailor) seems to have preferred Lunars to
           > keeping his
           > > Chronometer on time. The drawbacks are in the difficulties involved
           > with taking
           > > three "simultaneous" sights (two altitudes and the angle between them)
           > and in
           > > the calculations involved to reduce the sights.
           >
           > Actually, you don't need to shoot the altitudes. They are only used to
           > provide
           > corrections for reducing the angle between. You can use calculated
           > altitudes and
           > work back to the apparent altitudes, which then provides you with
           > corrections you
           > need to reduce the sight.
           >
           > In addition to making the sight easier, it opens the use of lunar
           > distances to
           > situations where you have no horizon available. The Navigation
           > Foundation's
           > newsletter had a series of stories about Lewis and Clark using this
           > method.
           >
           > As Russell Sher already mentioned, if you want to actually practice these

           > methods,
           > check out Bruce Stark's book, "Tables for Clearing the Lunar Distance."
           > It has
           > everything you need to do lunar distance sight reductions with a current
           > nautical
           > almanac. The process may seem a little tedious at first, but just like
           > doing
           > intercept method sight reduction, it gets easier with practice.
           >
           > --
           > Carl Herzog
           >

   

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