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George,

I am likewise looking forward to the wrap-up.  As an Aubrey fan (see
elsewhere, off topic), I have been puzzled by the old methods of
chronometer correction or checking by observation of natural
phenomena.

Take you time, but don't die before it's done, please!!  There's too
few experts like you around.

John Kabel
London, Ontario

> Dan Allen said-
>
> >I am, however, still waiting for George Huxtable's summary of lunars.
> >I still do not have those clear in my mind either!
> >
> >Dan
>
> ============================
>
> Reply, from George.-
>
> Dan is quite right to remind me that I have not yet fulfilled my promise.
> But I haven't forgotten it, and have been working on putting the thing
> together. It will be a few days yet.
>
> Let me explain the problem that I'm having. My intention at first was
> simply to supply a few relevant equations. But then the context for those
> equations needed explaining. Which brought up other matters that needed
> explaining. And so on. The whole thing starts to grow, if it's going to be
> intelligible to someone who isn't yet at all familiar with lunars.
>
> There's no escaping the fact that lunar distaces are a complex business. If
> there existed accessible textbooks on the subject, I could have simply
> referred the reader to those. The only modern one I am familiar with is
> C.H.Cotter, "A History of Nautical Astronomy" (London, 1968), which is very
> hard to find.
>
> If any reader knows of other useful textbooks on lunars, please say. Eric
> Haberfellner tells me of  "Self-Contained Celestial Navigation with H.O.
> 208" by John S. Letcher, Jr., published by International Marine Publishing
> Company in 1977.
>
> He says- "This book (to my suprise) has a chapter on "Time by Lunar
> Distance" and a chapter on "Time by Lunar Lines of Position". This would
> make it one of the few "modern" books that deals with this subject."
>
> I am also informed by Eric of Bruce Stark's "Tables for Clearing the Lunar
> Distance and Finding G.M.T. by Sextant Observation", and would be
> interested to hear listmembers' opinions about this book.
>
> However I have had to work on the basis of writing for members who have
> access to none of those works, and are new to lunars, but are familiar with
> the basics of ordinary astronavigation and the measurement of altitude by
> sextant. Would that pitch it about right?
>
> More soon.
>
> George Huxtable.
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> george@huxtable.u-net.com
> George Huxtable, 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
> Tel. 01865 820222 or (int.) +44 1865 820222.
> ------------------------------

   

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