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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunars for beginners
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2003 Dec 29, 18:35 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2003 Dec 29, 18:35 EST
Resources on lunars for beginners:
--Dava Sobel's "Longitude". If you haven't read it, you should. You don't have to love it (and it has one serious flaw), but it's very well-written and offers a good introduction to the basic issue. And it's inexpensive and widely available.
--John Letcher's "Self-Contained Celestial Navigation with HO 208". It's 25 years old, but his account is probably the best 20th century account of lunars in practice. You can learn and do real practical lunars by following the descriptions in this book. There are copies available through amazon.com.
--Arthur Pearson's web site "ld-DEADLINK-com" has some nice links, and his article on backyard lunars is excellent.
--George Huxtable's 4-part series of postings, which you can find linked on ld-DEADLINK-com is very good especially in the early parts.
That should get you started. You'll have to face a decision at an early date: are you interested in historical methods or methods that offer a flavor of the historical technique or something else entirely? Are you interested in calculation and mathematics or practical sextant handling? If you become interested in the mathematics, there are other resources you can look at. Lunars are like candy for people who get a kick out of math.
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
--Dava Sobel's "Longitude". If you haven't read it, you should. You don't have to love it (and it has one serious flaw), but it's very well-written and offers a good introduction to the basic issue. And it's inexpensive and widely available.
--John Letcher's "Self-Contained Celestial Navigation with HO 208". It's 25 years old, but his account is probably the best 20th century account of lunars in practice. You can learn and do real practical lunars by following the descriptions in this book. There are copies available through amazon.com.
--Arthur Pearson's web site "ld-DEADLINK-com" has some nice links, and his article on backyard lunars is excellent.
--George Huxtable's 4-part series of postings, which you can find linked on ld-DEADLINK-com is very good especially in the early parts.
That should get you started. You'll have to face a decision at an early date: are you interested in historical methods or methods that offer a flavor of the historical technique or something else entirely? Are you interested in calculation and mathematics or practical sextant handling? If you become interested in the mathematics, there are other resources you can look at. Lunars are like candy for people who get a kick out of math.
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
