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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Old style lunar
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2004 Dec 9, 19:28 -0500
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2004 Dec 9, 19:28 -0500
Ken: On Thu, 9 Dec 2004, Ken Muldrew wrote: > Don't forget that his lunar position depends > on a time-sight measurement > as well as the lunar distance. His watch was often out by more > than 10 > minutes each day, and the direction of error was unpredictable, Strange. If he could afford the best sextant, why did not he buy a better watch? I am sure in 1800, a watch keeping time to 1 minute per day was not a luxury. Or am I wrong here? > Bruce Stark was kind enough to send me some pages > from the 1800 almanac > this past summer. Perhaps I can check a few entries > to see what Thompson > was up against. It would be very interesting. Perhaps Frank can also tell us what accuracy can be expected from his lunar "predictions" for 200 years ago. Alex.
