NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Robin Stuart
Date: 2010 Mar 24, 06:32 -0700
John,
As I see it, the implication of my statement, "This conclusion does not depend on Columbus's erroneous estimate of the diameter of the Earth" should give Columbus little reason to be cheered. If he witnessed eclipse totality or even reported a deepening eclipse then that alone is enough for a third party, now or in 1504, to rule out his having been 7h 15m west of Cadiz. From that position he would have only seen a waning partial eclipse. The conclusion can be drawn without reference to Columbus's statement that the eclipse ended two hours and a half hours after sunset and there is no "out" available to him by arguing the size of the Earth,
Regards,
Robin Stuart
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