NavList:

Joshua Carty you wrote: “I was hoping someone would figure out the date from that minimal "lunar" sight that I included.”

I did write “With a little help from Navigator”.  As you know, I cheat like mad.  All I did was Google “List of Japanese bombing raids on US territory in 1942.”  Then I just put 4^th March 1942 into ‘Navigator’ (it’s a sort of ‘steam powered’ Stellarium to tell you where the stars are) and confirmed that Regulus was sitting 31degrees above the Moon at that time and date.  Job done.  However, from my infinitesimally small knowledge of lunars, isn’t having the star directly above the Moon about the worst possible situation for a lunar.  You’re using the different relative speeds of the star and the Moon to get a lunar distance.  If the star is at the same altitude as the moon and moves horizontally 10’ in a given time you pick up 10’ difference with your sextant, but if the star is 30 degrees above the Moon and moves horizontally 10’.  The difference in distance you pick up with your sextant is only the fatness of a 20’ chord of a 30 degree circle, so won’t it be less accurate? DaveP