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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Lunar Distance
From: Gordon Talge
Date: 1998 Jul 23, 2:27 PM
From: Gordon Talge
Date: 1998 Jul 23, 2:27 PM
My understanding was that since voyages way back in the days of exploration were sometimes years and they would lay over places sometimes months at a time, that lunar distances were done on shore to establish time for the ship's chronometers. In addition to the math, it took sometimes up to four people to to a lunar distance. If I remember right, Columbus tried to establish his position by use of a lunar eclipse on the island of Jamaica. His results were pretty far off considering he was on shore. -- Gordon ,,, (. .) +-----------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo----------------------+ | Gordon Talge WB6YKK e-mail: gtalge@pe.net | | Department of Mathematics QTH: Loma Linda, CA | | St. Joseph High School Lat. N 34� 03.1' | | Lakewood, California Long. W 117� 15.2' | | http://www.stjosephs.pvt.k12.ca.us | +--------------------------------------------------------+ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@roninhouse.com: =-=-= navigation =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-