NavList:

ANOTHER CELESTIAL HISTORY TALE

It is early 1942. The war is on. I am an ensign on a minor US Navy support vessel in the Pacific steaming to Pearl Harbor. See photo (ha -from a movie).

The Old Man has kept the ship's position secret from me for the past few days as a TEST. It has been cloudy for days. This afternoon the sky has cleared. We are now stopped, station-keeping for the night, in the lee of a craggy, foreboding island. Capn calls it "Dagger Island" and says we're still far to the north of Hawaii. He tells me to get a star fix after sunset.

Get a fix?! I'm looking for periscopes of Japanese submarines!

But late in twilight I take two star sights:
  Rigel: 58°32' at 05:30:00 GMT to the south,
  Saturn: 60°02' at 05:32:15 GMT in the west.
Height of eye is 26 feet. Index error is near zero.

I set aside my star sights. Half an hour later the Moon rises nearly full, illuminating the cliffs of "Dagger Island" and Japanese periscopes, too. None seen so far.

For my celestial entertainment, I decide to try one of those lunar distance sights. At 06:37, the altitude of the Moon (LL) is just about 8°10'. The horizon beneath it is nicely illuminated. And the star Regulus is directly above the Moon, nearly on the same azimuth, so far as I can judge. I measure from the Moon's Lower Limb to Regulus and get 31° 07.0'. My watch says 06:38:05 GMT. I'll hit the books and see if I can figure this out tomorrow...

Three hours later, near the end of my shift at At 09:45 GMT, almost relaxing under the tropical stars, I hear the droning sound of ship engines... A sub running on the surface in the dark? But no, it's in the sky! Approaching midnight local time, in a clear sky, I see huge aircraft, black silhouettes in the light of the Moon. They look like B-17s... flying east to San Diego? But maybe they're Japanese! I rush to the radio room. Send to Pearl Harbor!! "ENEMY BOMBERS ABOVE DAGGER ISLAND!"

Before it's too late, the Old Man stops me, edits my message, and tells me to go work up my sights. "Those are enemy bombers, kid, but there ain't no Dagger Island."

>>>
Where was I? What island? What day was this? And where were those bombers heading? It's a real event by the way.

The Moon info above with the lunar distance is not intended for real "lunars" analysis. It should tell you the date, or possible dates. When was Regulus 31° from the Moon in early 1942? I think you can do even better by asking when the Moon was ALSO nearly Full (has to be a day after Full since it rises well after sunset). Just one date??

Hope this is fun. And hope I got it all right!

Josh

File: