NavList:

Yes, I did not take the easiest way!

For the little story, I came across the method of lunar distances while trying to locate the time when navigation was done with a chronometer without using the Sumner line, for a small text on ... sundials. At this time I didn't know NavList.

You understood, I am not a navigator but a simple curious of old techniques. Before asking too simple questions, I wanted to understand the problematic of the lunar distance method, as for example why measure the height of the two celestial objects? Simply to be able to quantify the corrections needed to compute the true distance.

To come back to John L.'s formula, I fully agree with you: it is normal that it run in connection with Chauvenet's method and this proves nothing more. It is however sure that John knew and used the Chauvenet method which, it seems to me, must have been quite easy to use at the time when calculations were made with logarithms.

Thank you for the text of Mendoza that I will read with interest, and all the more easily as it is in French, my native language.