NavList:

Hello,

I have an interest in trying to determine the longitude (without UTC time) with a theodolite using the method of "moon culminating stars". As I understand the method (used on land, not on ships) a theodolite was set to due south (using equal altitudes of stars on each side of the meridian for example). Then a star with a similar declination to the moon was sighted crossing the meridian, this gave local sidereal time. Then the moon's bright limb was observed crossing the meridian and the time difference between the two crossings was recorded. I understand that back in the day almanacs had information to help complete this process to find GMT / Longitude (good stars to use, right ascension or GHA? of moons bright limb) and so on. 

My question: Does anyone know how I would proceed to do this using only information in the current Nautical Almanac using traditional calculations (not a computer program)?

I am curious what kind of accuracy I could acheive with a theodolite with direct readings to 1 second.

Thanks for any advice.

Doug Stephen