Next message: Frank Reed: "Re: Lunars"
Todd Shanklin, you wrote:
"I've heard much talk of lunars lately, but I can't seem to find anything
about them in my Bowditch. Any recommended references to teach me this? Is
this used mainly to practice tangency and check for I.E., &c.?"
See the link below (my web site), and also Arthur Pearson's excellent site
www.lunardistance.com and also explore the Navigation-L list archives. On
lunardistance.com and in the list archives, you should read George Huxtable's
four-part series on lunars. The first two parts are very good. Also, if you can
make it to Connecticut next June, among other activities, we will be shooting
and clearing lunars and discussing their history at the Mystic Seaport
Planetarium. Details are not yet firm on this one...
Bear in mind, as you explore, that there are many myths, both pro and con,
about lunar distance navigation. Just to name one, if you open practically any
biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, you'll read that he either invented lunars
out-right, or that he invented the first practical method of working lunars,
and neither of these things is even remotely true. His small, but
interesting, additions to the art of lunar distance navigation were primarily useful for
boosting sales of early editions of "The New American Practical Navigator".
Not that there's anything wrong with that!
As for why we do them today, yes, the practical excuse is primarily for
testing our sextants and our skill at handling them. Beyond the strictly
practical, some people like the idea of having a backup for GMT broadcasts and
accurate clocks in the event of some sort of apocalyptic event. And of course,
there's the challenge of it all, and the joy of doing something that was
historically important.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
