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Re: Jack Aubrey's fixing of longitude
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2011 Jun 27, 18:00 +0100
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2011 Jun 27, 18:00 +0100
Thanks Frank, for your detailed exposition of the NA contemporary to the Aubrey observation. As you say, the data are not good enough to allow a meaningful Venus occultation. So, as Albert correctly said, we cannot consider this as a candidate. My view is that the observation was, after all, a literary invention. Not quite as bad a John Wayne calling out the latitude and longitude to the nearest second while staring through a sextant, but equally not representative of the reality of astro-navigation in 1805. Thanks to everyone for trying, anyway. Geoffrey Kolbe