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Alex:

My experience at sea with Lunars generally indicated an accuracy between
15 and 30 minutes of Longitude. However, when I was experimenting it was
necessary to do all calculations "by hand", including actual distances
once published in the NA and now rather prolific on the Internet - it's
rather hard to say at this date how many errors may have inadvertently
crept into my work - I was a lot younger at that time and not quite so
patient as I now sometimes am.

You have expressed some mathematical interest in the "by hands"
calculation, and I would note this to be somewhat simplified by use of
the haversine formula, as opposed to the longer format originally
employed. Some time ago, I posted a work format for this method, compared
with actual problems published in Norie's utilizing Borda's method, and
showed a difference of some three (3) seconds in the cleared distance - I
tried posting this format on the List, however, the prohibition with
respect to attachments really screwed up the presentation. I would be
pleased to separately forward you a copy of this format and would welcome
your comments mathematically.

                                Henry

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 14:10:48 -0500 Alexandre Eremenko
 writes:
> The question of lunars accuracy in practice
> was apparently touched many times in this list.
> But I could not find much of the row experimental data.
> So I ask those who really practice lunars in sea
> or on land: can you give some statistics of the accuracy
> of your own distance measurements?
> Alex.
>

   

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