NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: 1851 Bowditch
From: Bruce Stark
Date: 2003 Feb 2, 21:34 EST
From: Bruce Stark
Date: 2003 Feb 2, 21:34 EST
Jared, You said, among other things, "I think many of us (myself included!) have some conceptual problems caused by the way we have learned basic terms and concepts." I agree. I believe that's what made it hard for most people to accept the idea of using calculated altitudes to work lunars. I also believe it's what has made the old nautical astronomy incomprehensible to twentieth century navigators. The old system was pretty much upside down and backward from our own, and had to be. Moreover, it used words and phrases that had one meaning then and a different one now. I expect the only way to learn how the navigators of Bowditch's day thought is to work their problems the way they did. Then, with luck, the old view will become clear. Bruce