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Re: Checking Chronometer
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Apr 11, 00:30 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Apr 11, 00:30 -0400
Bill, > If I recall, lunars were part of the contest to find longitude at sea. > If so, that would have been pre almanac as well. Yes. Lunars were tested (by professional astronmers first, not by seaman) using the (astronomer) Mayer's tables. They were also tested before, but only with Mayer's tables the results were quite satisfactory. After the tests, the royal astronomer Nevill Maskelyne recommended them to all seamen and started publishing the almanac. Chronometer was invented at about the same time, or nearly the same, and the same Maskelyne organized the trials. (Some people from Harrison camp say that Maskelyne was biased towards Lunars and against chronometers). Chronometers were very expensive (and there were very few of tem) until some time into XIX century. (This is an abbreviated digest. Writing from memory, do not check the dates and names spelling... Hope there are no very crude mistakes:-) Alex.
