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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunars in early XVII century?
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Dec 28, 10:17 -0500
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Dec 28, 10:17 -0500
On Fri, 28 Dec 2012, Dave Walden wrote: I am not sure. The whole story is obscure. First, Parry's identification of the place from which Baffin's observation was taken. It is based on very rough description in the journal. I coud not find it on Google maps according to this description. And Parry does not tell what the coordinates were according to his own determination. (See Parry's journal). Second, from recorded observations of Baffin, we see that he measured altitudes to 1/2 degree accuracy and distance to 1 degree. Such lunar observations can give an approximate position only by pure accident:-) According to the journal, Baffin made two observations at this place. The first one he did not reduce, because the next morning he made another one, which was better on his opinion, and used the transit of the Moon instead of measuring the distance directly. Anyway, I would not call this the first (successful) lunar. I would rather call it (together with the footnote writer on p. 122) "one of the first attempts to use a lunar". If I remember correctly, Barentz made a similar attempt even earlier. But Baffin's general comments (in the very beginning) on lunars are interesting. Alex. > > Seems like it could be called a lunar > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList > Members may optionally receive posts by email. > To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/img/121607.baffin.jpg > > > : http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=121607 > > >
