NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: No Lunars Era
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Dec 6, 20:02 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Dec 6, 20:02 EST
Alex E wrote:
"1828 Norie does not even mention that there exists
some "spherical trigonometry". Just cookbook recipes."
some "spherical trigonometry". Just cookbook recipes."
But honestly, so what?? The trig is utterly irrelevant as long as the
algorithms are correct. Does my computer need to understand spherical
trigonometry to perform its calculations?? For that matter, does a navigator
need to understand physics to use a refraction table?
And:
"Yes. This is another argument to support what I am saying. "Professors"
did not trust a practical mariner/traveler who was instructed in a "crash
course"."
I don't buy that. It's because those professors were not themselves
practical navigators. There were PLENTY of people who could have been sent on
that expedition who had extensive practical experience with lunars.
Hell, they could have sent Nathaniel Bowditch! The failure of the navigation
observations on the Lewis & Clark expedition was a travesty, plain and
simple.
Frank R
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
