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The title of this book may be "Manual of Spherical and Practical
Astronomy".  Some of the older editions have an additional subtitle.
There is a 1960 edition.

On Dec 24, 2003, at 12:31 PM, George Huxtable wrote:

> Dan Allen said-
>
>> I have just started to read an old book called "Spherical and Nautical
>> Astronomy", a two volume set by William Chauvenet who was a professor
>> at Washington University in St. Louis.  My copy was printed in 1903
>> but
>> it appears that it is just a reprint of an 1863 edition.
>>
>> Chapter 7 is "Finding Longitude by Astronomical Observation" where it
>> lists seven different methods, which are:
>>
>> "1st method - by portable chronometers
>>  2nd method - by signals
>>  3rd method - by the electric telegraph
>>  4th method - by moon culminations
>>  5th method - by azimuths of the moon, or transits of the moon
>>               and a star over the same vertical circle
>>  6th method - by altitudes of the moon
>>  7th method - by lunar distances"
>>
>> By chronometers it means chronometric expeditions: taking a
>> chronometer
>> from Greenwich to Boston and comparing mean noon times.  By signals it
>> includes eclipses, occultations of Jupiter's moons, and terrestrial
>> signals.
>
> ===============
>
> Chauvenet (presumably, from his name, of French extraction) was one of
> the
> important names in early American science. (In astronomy, Simon
> Newcomb was
> the next, to establish the American lead over the rest of the world in
> astronomical matters). Chauvenet's great two-volume work was intended
> for
> astronomers and surveyors, rather than for the more simple-minded
> navigator, I suspect. It is remarkably thorough and comprehensive.
> Lots of
> detailed drawings of survey instruments and telescope mounts.
>
> It's the only published work that I have seen, which assesses the
> (small)
> effect of the elliptical shape of the Earth on the AZIMUTH of the Moon.
> That doesn't affect any observations involving just the Moon's
> altitude,
> but it does, of course, affect the oblique lunar distance to another
> body;
> an effect that's usually neglected.
>
> I have never seen any note, in a subsequent work, drawing attention to
> an
> error in Chauvenet, so I conclude he got it all right.
>
> The chronometer expeditions that Dan mentions were big business before
> the
> telegraph came in. Literally dozens of chronometers were shipped
> bachwards
> and forwards between Greenwich and Dublin, time and again, to establish
> their longitude difference. Also between German observatories and
> Pulkovo
> (St Petersburg). Does anyone know whether chronometers were ever
> shipped up
> the Mississippi for that purpose, before the days of the telegraph? Or
> sent
> by pony express, even, if they could withstand the rigours of that
> journey?
>
> My own copy of Chauvenet has a text-date on the preface of 1863, like
> Dan's, but otherwise says nothing about its date other than "5th
> edition".
> Does Dan have an edition-number with his 1903 printing, that might
> help to
> fix the date of my own copy better?
>
> George.
>
> ================================================================
> contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by
> phone at
> 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
> Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
> ================================================================
>

   

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