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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunar Observation & Time Sight (1825)
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Sep 30, 07:12 -0300
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Sep 30, 07:12 -0300
Fascinating, Frank. Thanks.
The
image of the original logbook calculation page reveals an interesting
insight to the "frought-with-errors" nature of CN: the navigator seems to
have crossed out several digits as he worked the problem.
By way of trying to understand the human side of CN in those days, can
you tell if he used a pen or a pencil? It appears that pencils were
mass-produced in Europe from the 17th century, although it they were
not mass-produced in the US until the mid-1800's owing to wars with
Europe. They were being manufactured in smaller numbers in the Boston
area very early in the 19th century, and so could have been used by whalers in
1820.
Jim
Thompson
jim2@jimthompson.net
www.jimthompson.net
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-----Original Message-----Last month I posted a link to a page from a logbook showing a complete lunar observation calculation AND the associated time sight from 1825. Since people have been talking about these sights, I decided to write up an analysis of this particular set of observations and calculations. This is a real, "at sea" lunar and time sight demonstrating actual practice in this time period. The address:
From: Navigation Mailing List On Behalf Of Frank Reed
http://www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars/1825
