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Greg, you wrote:
"Does anyone have a definitive answer for what the "d" and "v" letters in
the Nautical Almanac daily pages actually stand for? "

I would say that they don't 'actually' stand for anything in modern
celestial navigation, though undoubtedly, in the ancient mists of the 1950s,
they originally meant something to the first person who labeled them as d
and v. In the explanation section of the Abridged Nautical Almanac for 1953,
these corrections are mentioned in the same sentences as "difference" and
"variation" but no attempt is made to define them literally. That is, it
doesn't say "d stands for difference" but it comes rather close. Of course,
these quantities have very specific meanings despite the uncertain
etymology.

By the way, in the American Nautical Almanac of the same period, these
numbers are called "codes". You would enter the interpolation table with the
correct "code" for either the GHA or Dec of that body on that date. It's the
same concept, the same interpolation trick, with a different generic name
for the increment.

 -FER



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