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    Lunar Distances
    From: Greg Gilbert
    Date: 2002 Feb 5, 14:31 +1100
    Lunar Distances

    I've been trying to work through the example given by George Huxtable in "About Lunars".  It's a great way to try to understand the subject, and get a feel of the calculations done by early navigators.

    I've had a problem however, in that I think there is a typo in one calculation.

    I've followed the calculation for Predicted Lunar Distances - OK.
    I've followed the calculations for observed and corrected Sun and Moon altitudes - OK.
    However, correcting the Observed Lunar Distance (105 degrees 50.5 minutes) by adding the semi-diameters of Sun and Moon (16 minutes for the Sun and 16.4 minutes for the Moon) gives me an answer of d = 106 degrees 22.9 minutes, not 107 degrees 22.9 minutes. 

    Putting this into the formula for clearing the Lunar Distance gives me an answer for D of 105 degrees 50.2 minutes.

    I don't think this is correct because this gives me a GMT time for the observations of 15:53:04, which doesn't tally with the estimated time of "something between 1700 and 1800 GMT", and the watch time of 17:36:43.  Could the watch be incorrect by 1 hour, 43 minutes and 39 seconds?

    Can someone help me here?

    Greg Gilbert,
    35o10' S, 138o42' E.

       
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