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Guy Schwartz asked, about Nav-l-

"Tried sending a message and it was bounced back."
As for nav-l, wish I knew more about what's happened, and happening.

and-
"Is there a book that deals with the history of celestial navigation?"

Yes, there are are a few books that deal with the topic of the history 
of celestial navigation. Or astro-navigation, as it's usually referred 
to this side of the Atlantic. All that I know of are by British 
authors, post-war, but not very recent, and all out of print. There 
are others, in other languages, that I can't evaluate. If anyone can 
suggest any American texts, that would be of interest.

Best, but with severe reservations, is Charles H Cotter, "History of 
Nautical Astronomy", 1968. Best, because he isn't shy about getting 
into the maths. Reservations, because he gets so much wrong 
(especially in the maths). Secondhand, Cotter is hard to find, 
nowadays, and getting rather expensive; if you can discover a copy on 
Abebooks or Amazon at less than �60 ($100, say), you are doing well. 
If you have a copy, I recommend that it's useful to tuck inside it a 
list of known and suspected errors, compiled by Jan Kalivoda and me, 
with help from Herbert Prinz. This can be downloaded from-
 http://www.huxtable.u-net.com/cotter01.htm  It's very likely there 
are further errors, as yet undiscovered, and if any are found or 
suspected, I would like to be informed.

Others, which deal with celestial navigation as part of the general 
history of navigation, are-

W E May, "A history of marine navigation", 1973. Comprehensive, quite 
well illustrated, but avoids numbers and equations.

J B Hewson, "A history of the practice of navigation", editions from 
1951 to 1983. Not so well illustrated, and in my view not so 
authoritative, but pretty reliable.

There are several texts, one by Waters, several by E G R Taylor, which 
deal with earlier periods in the history of navigation, but which 
don't get into the 19th century stuff when our modern methods of 
navigating were formed, so are less relevant to modern mariners. I can 
list them if anyone wants to know.

It would be interesting to see what books others recommend.

George.

contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.



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