NavList:

   

Reply

While browsing the 1851 Astronomical Journal at the ADSABS site, I ran
across William Chauvenet's introduction of his lunar distance method.

"In the year 1832, Bessel gave, in the Astronomische Nachrichten, a new
solution of the problem of finding the longitude by lunar distances...
He proposed formulas by which, with a particular disposition of the
ephemeris, a perfectly accurate result could be obtained. An ephemeris
arranged upon his plan was immediately prepared and published by
Schumacher, together with tables and practical directions for
facilitating its use at sea; and in the hope of reaching British and
American navigators, all the rules were given in the English language.
The experiment, however, was unsuccessful, and after the ephemeris had
reached its third year, it was abandoned. This failure is ascribed
chiefly to the nature of Bessel's computation... As delivered by its
author, the method seemed simple enough to the mathematician accustomed
to considering the varying signs of his functions; but when it was
reduced to a set of practical rules, dispensing with a consideration of
those signs, it became embarrassing by the multiplicity of its cases..."

"In the mean time I have found that something could be done towards
perfecting the common methods without changing the form of the
ephemeris, and without introducing any processes of a kind not familiar
to practical men. The method I have proposed is hardly more laborious
than the simplest of those in common use, while it attains to that
extreme precision which is required when we wish to get from our
observations all that they are capable of giving."


http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1851AJ......2...24C&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES

Corrigenda:


http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1851AJ......2...40C&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES


I have never attempted a solution with Chauvenet's method and have no
opinion one way or the other on its usefulness.

   

Reply