NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: USS Fitzgerald collision with container ship
From: David Pike
Date: 2017 Jun 19, 15:49 -0700
From: David Pike
Date: 2017 Jun 19, 15:49 -0700
Frank you wrote: A celestial detail: several media accounts have described a "moonless night". Using a collision time of 1630 UT on 16 June, I find the Moon about 22° high in the southeast from the accident location and 59% illuminated. Am I doing something wrong, or are those moonless reports wrong?
Navigator Star Finder agrees with you Frank. Moreover, the Moon would have been on USS Fitzgerald’s starboard side at around green 040. However, the Moon might have been obscured by cloud, or ‘Moonless’ might just have been journalese for pretty dark. DaveP
