NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Lunar Eclipse
From: Ken Muldrew
Date: 2004 Oct 27, 14:35 -0600
From: Ken Muldrew
Date: 2004 Oct 27, 14:35 -0600
In honour of tonight's lunar eclipse, I've copied in a longitude by lunar eclipse by Peter Fidler, Hudson's Bay Company surveyor, from 1808. Fidler was on a journey from the Swan River to Red River and stopped over for 5 days in Brandon House (near the current city of Brandon Manitoba) where he took these observations. In the transcription, "D. Alt." means a meridian altitude of the sun through an artificial horizon, "(.)" means the sun, and "))" is for the moon. The observations are not recorded in chronological order as this is a fair copy of his field journal (a copy made after the fact, cleaning up any useless information). The eclipse data comes first, then a series of latitudes, compass variation, some time shots, and two lunars (with almanac data below). Fidler clears his lunars using Witchell's method (the corrections are given below the almanac data) but sadly he left no trace of his workings in any of his notebooks. Astronomical Observations taken at Brandon House 1808 Peter Fidler Lunar Eclipse Watch May 9th Beg | End | # ' | # ' Beginning . . . . . . . . | 11.1 | 14.32 Black spot below . . . . | 11.6 | 13.39 Bright spot above - near the middle | 11.8 1/2 | 13.43 Like Tycho near UL . . . | 11.18 1/2| 13.52 1/4 A black spot on E side on left | 11.29 | 14.3 Tycho, middle near ))'s UL| 11.36 | Forgot the Begin^g Total Darkness . | 11.59 1/2| End Total Darkness . . . | 13.33 A spot not marked above . | 13.35 A Bright spot near the middle - the left one of the two close together| 14.7 End of Eclipse . . . . . | 14.32 End of Penumbra . . . . . | 14.37 Long^de by Beginning 99..41 1/4 Beg. Tot^l Darkness 99..35 1/2 End Tot^l Darkness 99..29 End of Eclipse 99..14 ----------- Mean 99.29.56 2^nd Obs. ----------- ? ' " Mean of all . . . . . . . . 99.25.5 of Lat^de . . . . . . 49.40.43 Very clear calm night, the moon red, but still visible - very good sight from beginning to the end. N.B. The Mandan Village at the Missouri is said to bear about SSE from River Qu'Appelle House - and to W of S from Brandon House. May 9 D Alt. | Lat (.) LL | ? ' " | 115.3.30 | - 15 | -------------------- 115.3.15 | 49.40.29 May 10 D Alt. | Lat (.) LL | ? ' " | 115.34.0 | - 15 | -------------------- 115.33.45 | 49.40.57 May 11 D Alt. | Lat (.) LL | ? ' " | 116.5.30 | - 15 | -------------------- 115.5.15 | 49.40.42 May 9 D Alt. | (.) bore #4 1/4 (.) LL 56.19.0 | S70? 1/2 W 27.0 | 71 1/2 55.55.0 | 72 1/2 --------------------- 56.27.0 | S 71 1/2 W - 15 --------------------- 56.26.45| Variat E 12?..12" May 9 # ' " | (.) LL 4.16.17 | 54.52.30 17. 0 | --.39.15 17.37 | --.27. 0 ------------------ 4.16.58 | 54.39.35 + 14. 8 | - 15 ------------------ 4.31. 6 | 54.39.20 May 9 # ' " | (.) LL 20.41.35 | 83.21. 0 42.24 | --.34.30 43.12 | --.48.15 ------------------- 20.42.24 | 83.34.35 + 18.40 | - 15 ------------------- 21. 1. 4 | 83.34.20 May 14 # ' " | (.) LL 19. 6.32 | 49.15. 0 7.21 | --.31. 0 8. 4 | --.45. 0 ------------------- 19. 7.19 | 49.30.20 - 44 | - 15 ------------------- 19. 6.35 | 49.30. 5 May 14 # ' " | )) & (.)'s NL 18.45.54 | 110?23'45" 47.50 | ---.23. 0 48.15 | .22.30 49.15 | .22.15 50. 8 | .22. 0 51. 6 | .21.45 52. 4 | .21.15 52.53 | .20.45 53.53 | .20.30 54. 7 | .20.15 ---------------------- 18.50.32 | 110.21.48 - 44 | - 15 ---------------------- 18.49.48 | 110.21.33 99? 24 1/4' May 14 # ' " | )) & (.)'s NL 19. 9.18 | 110?14'45" 10.38 | ---.14.15 11.35 | .14. 0 12.43 | .13.30 13.45 | .13. 0 14.41 | .12.15 15.36 | .11.45 16.33 | .11.30 17.25 | .11.15 18.24 | .11. 0 ---------------------- 19.14. 4 | 110.12.43 - 44 | - 15 ---------------------- 19.13.20 | 110.12.28 99? 16 1/4' (.) TA 22?16' 5" | 26? 4'40" AA 22.18.15 | 26. 6.28 Semi 15.50 | 15.50 )) TA 21.41.30 | 19. 3.50 AA 20.50.40 | 18.12.33 Semi 15.41 | 15.40 HP 57. 2 | 57. 1 +1'14" -29'28" -5" |+1'1" -31'47" -5" 110.24.45 | 110.13.7 Ken Muldrew.