Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: Bessel's solution of lunar distances
    From: Robert H. van Gent
    Date: 2019 Mar 18, 09:23 +0000

    Hi,

     

    Bessel’s original papers on lunar distances are here (click on the GIF’s)

     

    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1832AN.....10...17B

    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1832AN.....10...33B

    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1832AN.....10...49B

     

    and

     

                    https://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/titleinfo/4430186 (vol. II, pp. 266-307)

     

    rvg

     

     

    From: NavList@fer3.com <NavList@fer3.com> On Behalf Of Roger W. Sinnott
    Sent: Mon 18 March 2019 1:16
    To: Gent, R.H. van (Rob) <R.H.vanGent@uu.nl>
    Subject: [NavList] Bessel's solution of lunar distances

     

    In Wm. Chauvenet's Manual of Spherical and Practical Astronomy, Vol. 1, there is a tantalizing footnote in the section on lunar distances (see page 395 of the Dover edition):

     

    "Astron. Nach. Vol. X. No. 218, and Astron. Untersuchungen, Vol. II.  Bessel's method requires a different form of lunar Ephemeris from that adopted in our Nautical Almanacs.  But even with the Ephemeris arranged as he proposes, the computation is not so brief as the approximative method here given, and its superiority in respect of precision is so slight as to give it no important practical advantage. It is, however, the only theoretically exact solution that has been given, and might still come into use if the measurement of the distance could be rendered much more precise than is now possible with instruments of reflection."

     

    Has anyone tried Bessel's method, or even seen what it involves?  From what Chauvenet says, it would seem to be tailor-made for computer programming.

     

    Roger

     

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site