NavList:

Herbert,

> Why was this expedition not equipped with
> suitable telescopes?

The telescope had to be quite large and heavy, including the
tripod. I suppose it is also very fragile.

> Since the U.S. did not have an
> observatory of their own, Jefferson would have had to depend on
> cooperation in Europe.

Why an observatory in the US was needed?
The eclipse times of the satellites were published by European
observatories.

>Maybe he felt that the moon
>ephemeris in the N.A.
> was sufficiently reliable to stand on its own, at least more so than
> that of the Galilean satellites.

Did not those Europeans that used the method successfully use the
same Almanac?

> But now that I read this letter, I see a second explanation.

Sounds more plausible than the first one.
But it could also be that the difficulty of
transportation of a large telescope in such
expedition was the reason.

Alex.


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