NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Old Navigation Techniques
From: Dan Hogan
Date: 1998 Jul 22, 10:42 AM
From: Dan Hogan
Date: 1998 Jul 22, 10:42 AM
Everything I have read about Columbus seems to indicate that he had trouble dealing with the math and procedures for a Noon Sight let alone the calculations needed for Lunars. The first suggestion for using Lunars seems to have been by the astronomer John Werner of Nuremberg in 1514. Robert H. Fuson in "The Log of Christopher Columbus, International Marine, 1987, ISBN 0-87742-951-0", says that Columbus carried a Quadrant and possibly a Backstaff. He tried the Quadrant 5 times and found it at variance to his DR. Since Columbus was of the loxodrome school of DR navigators who followed 32 points of the compass he didn't have a need for knowledge of his latitude beyond 2 to 3 degrees since he was following the compass. Then too, he also kept time with an Hour Glass. How, do you do Lunars with an hour glass??? His estimate of the circumference of the earth was too small, intentional or not. Also at the end of the 16th century charts still showed Venice too far north by three degrees and Genoa by two degrees. He did it by DR and LUCK. Dan Hogan WA6PBY "Gacha" Catalina 27 San Pedro, CA dhhogan@concentric.net =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= =-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@roninhouse.com: =-= =-= navigation =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=