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Re: Jack Aubrey's fixing of longitude
From: Michael Dorl
Date: 2011 Jun 20, 10:20 -0500
Assuming an occultation, doesn't the fact that Venus was above the moon before the event mean that the event took place in the West as they were both descending?
From: Michael Dorl
Date: 2011 Jun 20, 10:20 -0500
In O'Brian's book, HMS Surprise, Aubrey fixes the position of an island thus: "...Jack had set up his instruments and where he and his officers were gazing up at the pale moon, with Venus clear above her...... The instruments stood on a carefully levelled patch of sand, and as the great moment approached, the tension could be felt..... A deadly hush fell over the group, broken only by Jack's voice reading off figures to his clerk. "Two seven four," he said, straightening his back at last.
Assuming an occultation, doesn't the fact that Venus was above the moon before the event mean that the event took place in the West as they were both descending?