NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunar reference
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2005 Dec 9, 02:14 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2005 Dec 9, 02:14 EST
Todd Shanklin, you wrote: "I've heard much talk of lunars lately, but I can't seem to find anything about them in my Bowditch. Any recommended references to teach me this? Is this used mainly to practice tangency and check for I.E., &c.?" See the link below (my web site), and also Arthur Pearson's excellent site www.ld-DEADLINK-com and also explore the Navigation-L list archives. On ld-DEADLINK-com and in the list archives, you should read George Huxtable's four-part series on lunars. The first two parts are very good. Also, if you can make it to Connecticut next June, among other activities, we will be shooting and clearing lunars and discussing their history at the Mystic Seaport Planetarium. Details are not yet firm on this one... Bear in mind, as you explore, that there are many myths, both pro and con, about lunar distance navigation. Just to name one, if you open practically any biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, you'll read that he either invented lunars out-right, or that he invented the first practical method of working lunars, and neither of these things is even remotely true. His small, but interesting, additions to the art of lunar distance navigation were primarily useful for boosting sales of early editions of "The New American Practical Navigator". Not that there's anything wrong with that! As for why we do them today, yes, the practical excuse is primarily for testing our sextants and our skill at handling them. Beyond the strictly practical, some people like the idea of having a backup for GMT broadcasts and accurate clocks in the event of some sort of apocalyptic event. And of course, there's the challenge of it all, and the joy of doing something that was historically important. -FER 42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W. www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
