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Subject: A useful booklet.
From: George Huxtable (george@XXX.XXX)
Date: Sat May 10 2003 - 12:39:09 EDT
A useful booklet.
Sometimes I get asked to recommend books about lunar distance and other
methods of finding longitude.
The booklet "Man is not Lost" (which doesn't credit any specific author,
but is probably the work of Donald Sadler) was published by HMSO (Her
Majesty's Stationery Office) in the UK in 1967 to commemmorate the first
Nautical Almanac in 1767. It describes the general principles of lunars
rather well, though without the details that are needed for actually
obtaining a numerical answer. It's only forty-odd pages.
I don't often see it up for sale, but a copy has turned up in the catalogue
of specialist astronomical bookseller Andromeda Books, in Milton Keynes,
UK, andromedabooks@XXX.XXX
Their phone number is +44 1908 312046. The book is number 145 in their
catalogue 11, priced at £10 (to include UK postage), which must be
equivalent to about US$15.
On the subject of books about astronavigation, I'm keeping a lookout for a
copy of "Nevil Maskelyne, the Seaman's Astronomer", a biography by Derek
Howse, published as recently as 1989, but now out of print. If you come
across a copy in a bookshop anywhere, that's not at an outrageous price, do
let me know.
George.
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contact George Huxtable by email at george@XXX.XXX by phone at
01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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