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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunar distances
From: Eric Haberfellner
Date: 2002 Jan 27, 8:16 PM
From: Eric Haberfellner
Date: 2002 Jan 27, 8:16 PM
I recieved this message WS Murdoch. It provides more information on what is in the Lechter Book. Thank you Mr Murdoch. Eric Haberfellner -----Original Message----- From WSMurdoch@aol.com [mailto:WSMurdoch@aol.com] Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 6:20 PM To: ehaberfe@rogers.com Subject: Re: Lunar distances In a message dated 1/26/02 1:39:28 AM Eastern Standard Time, ehaberfe@rogers.com writes: I am not an expert on Lunars, but I believe that Lechter gives a complete solution. He states: "In discovering a way to solve it [GMT by lunar distance] using only the Nautical Almanac and the ordinary sight reduction tables I had on board (H.O. 214), I experienced one of the great intellectual triumphs of my life. On the 25th day of the passage, with 500 miles to go, I was able to prove beyond all doubt that my clock was correct, within one minute of GMT, so my longitude was gound within 30 miles or so - ample precision for the upcoming landfall" This was in 1963. Did the Nautical Almanac still have Lunar distance tables at that time? I will have to dig into this material to figure out what information he actually uses from the Nautical Almanac. I don't have time right now. He has some equations, and gives complete examples. Self Contained Celestial Navigation with H.O. 208 by John S. Letcher contains two chapters on lunars. The first chapter (and method) is a slightly simplified standard determination of the time by lunar observation using a modern almanac. The second is the line of position method which has been discussed on this list before. He describes his discovery of this second method and dates it as 1963. He published the method in Yachting (February 1964) previous to Chichester's 1966 Along the Clipper Way. The line of position method needs nothing more than the normal almanac data, a means of sight reduction, some plotting, a favorable alignment of the moon, and enough bodies for a fix.