NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Douglas Stephen
Date: 2017 Apr 24, 12:41 -0700
Hello all,
In 1869, John Wesley Powell explored the Green and Colorado rivers by boat. I understand that he used a sextant to help with the mapping of the rivers and area. I have not been able to find any details of how he made his observations other than mention of a meridian sight using Jupiter, the general use of lunars, that observations were made at night and that he had 4 chronometers and two sextants along. I haven't found any journals with details about how the sights were reduced or the actual locations he calculated. Some of this may be due to lost journals but I am not sure. Does anyone know the details of his observations or know where I might look other than google searches and library searches?
I am planning a trip down part the course that Powell followed, plan to take a sextant along and it would be nice to do observations and sight reductions in something of the manner that Powell used.
Thanks,
Doug Stephen