NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Age: is it relevant? (And Flinders)
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Apr 9, 21:06 +0100
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Apr 9, 21:06 +0100
I wrote- "Frank Reed recently chose to tell us that he is 41 years old." and he replied> >And George joked: >"Remarkable, that. I had taken him to be MUCH younger." On what evidence, I wonder, did Frank presume that it was a joke? But, more seriously, I asked whether age was relevant; and perhaps there's some evidence that it is. I had asked, in a posting headed "Thomas Jefferson and Lunar Obs.", if anyone was aware of after-the event longitude corrections being supplied by Greenwich Observatory. Frank Reed has just pointed out that he had raised (and answered) that very question, in regard to Flinders, just a few weeks before, and what's more, I had commented on the matter in a reply. And, indeed, so he did, and so I had. Sorry about that. I understand that Americans have coined a kindly euphemism for that kind of lapse, as a "senior moment". Such senior moments do seem to be occurring more frequently for me, nowadays. Perhaps list members should be asked to make allowances for my own advancing dotage, as well as for Frank's immaturity. Maybe age is relevant, after all! Now, back to Flinders, and his after-the event longitude corrections, from Greenwich Observatory. Frank quotes Flinders as follows- "... it was desirable that the astronomical observations, upon which so much depended, should undergo a recalculation, and the lunar distances have the advantage of being compared with the observations made at the same time at Greenwich; and in July 1811 the necessary authority was obtained from the Board of Longitude." No doubt Flinders was in a privileged position with the Board of Longitude, being engaged in writing up the voyage he had commanded, which was an official Naval expedition. Even so, it seems that obtaining access to the earlier Greenwich observations was not an automatic process even for him, but required specific authority from the Board of Longitude. I wonder how a non-official land explorer, with none of those advantages, would have fared, with a similar request. Flinders described those corrections as having made "considerable alterations" to his longitudes. Did he provide any examples of those corrections, or give any idea of their magnitudes, I wonder? 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. ================================================================