Next message: Bruce Stark: "Lewis & Clark"
Ken,
Your posting came in just as I signed on to send a note on Lewis & Clark.
I've printed it off, since it will be of long-term interest. I read it down to
where you say:
" . . . the way these navigators of old approached the subjects of time and
computation are so foreign to our modern way of thinking, that only careful
recreation of their methods can capture their mindset (and their
accomplishment)."
Boy! I'm in absolute and enthusiastic agreement with you there! As long as
researchers continue to butcher the old nautical astronomy and force-fit it into
twentieth-century logic, the history of navigation will continue to be
shot-through with nonsense.
That concern prompted me to write up the "Tin Clock and Sextant" observations
for last winter's Navigators Newsletter. It's also one of the reasons I use
the old Nautical Almanac and old-fashioned trig-log tables to work Lewis &
Clark's observations.
I've started working L & C's June 3d, 1804 lunars, and want to get that done
before studying your post. Time is running out on the 200th anniversary of
those L&C observations.
Bruce
