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Robert asked:
"If people are buying used  Nautical Almanacs on e-bay, what are they using
them for?"

At three bucks  (sometimes much less) plus a couple for shipping, could be
almost anything. Doug  Royer mentioned nautical decor, and that's a big one. It
sounds like you've been  keeping yours in good condition so you might be able
to sell them at a premium  for their decorative value. There are also people
who collect "Navy stuff" and  the official N.A.'s fit that category. Another
small market is for people who  have some sentimental attachment for the
specific year.

Myself, I have  been collecting together a few almanacs from each 25 year
period and from  various re-publishers so that I can better understand the tools
of the trade  available historically (without schlepping to the library every
time). For  example, when we were talking about those time sights in that
logbook from  1896-97, it was nice to be able to pull an "American Nautical
Almanac" from 1890  off the shelf and verify that the Sun declinations are accurate
to the nearest  arcsecond (compared with accurate modern calculations for that
era) which made  it clear that the recorded declinations were taken from the
table for Greenwich  *Apparent* Noon rather than Mean Noon. It's a small
discovery but a fun one, and  I wouldn't have made it without an old almanac in
hand.

-FER
42.0N  87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars

   

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