Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: Timing Lunars with a Rock
    From: Frank Reed CT
    Date: 2005 Jul 19, 18:06 EDT

    George Huxtable wrote:
    "What a mess  listmembers would make of estimating time at an African lake,
    if that's the  best they can do between them!"
    
    Lucky for us then that the time machine  has not yet been invented. :-)
    
    Back to the historical context for a  moment, I found it just amazing that a
    longitude measurement of such import (at  the time) was accomplished with the
    help of a stone swinging on the end of a  string. I have not been able to
    confirm that this was really the case in the  specific situation described, but
    it's at least possible.
    
    Lunars were  apparently rather popular among European explorers/travelers in
    19th century  Africa. The famous David Livingstone apparently took hundreds of
    lunar  observations while he was roaming around southern Africa.
    
    Go here:  http://www.hti.umich.edu/ and click the "Making of America"
    collection. Enter  "lunars" as a search term. You'll find all sorts of references
    including the  tale of Livingstone's last travels and also a complete online
    edition of  Chauvenet's "Manual of Spherical and Practical Astronomy".
    
    -FER
    42.0N  87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
    www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
    
    
    

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site