NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Pre-Almanac navigation
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Apr 10, 20:47 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Apr 10, 20:47 -0400
Bill actually raised an interesting question. What ephemerides were available to an ordinary seaman, before they started to publish the Almanac. Say, in early 18 C. Certainly, a seaman could take Sun's altitude at noon, and Polaris altitude at twilight. And find his latitude without any almanac. And find local time from the Sun, approximately. What else could he do in Cel Nav? I afraid, nothing else. Alex.