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lunars for sure.  Connaissance_des_Temps was started in the 1680s or so.  The 
Nautical Almanac was not a state secret then, but would have been now.


Fred Hebard
mbiew@comcast.net



On Nov 19, 2014, at 4:41 PM, Don Seltzer wrote:

> 
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 11:51 AM, Frank Reed 
>  wrote:
>  >But will anyone practice the type of navigation that would
> > have actually been used in 1780? Maybe at least for a few demonstrations...
> 
> What level of celestial navigation would have been practiced aboard a
> typical French frigate in 1780?
> My guess is that it would have been limited to noon observations of
> latitude, with navigation primarily dependent upon dead reckoning.  No
> chronometer, and probably no use of lunars for determining longitude.
> Every hour they would heave the chip log, recording speed and compass
> direction.  At noon, the master would observe the sun, if visible, for
> latitude and enter into the log the latitude by observation and both
> the latitude and longitude by account (from the dead reckoning
> calculations).
> 
> Don Seltzer
> 
> 
> 
> 

   

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