Re: [Paddlewise] Longitude and astronomy

From: Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:52:24 -0700
On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 4:26 AM, <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com> wrote:

>  Seems as if some measure of time is needed as well. But I know from market
> gardening in the 60's that ancient gardeners don't need clocks to tell the
> time, Imagine the same could be true of islanders!
>

The islanders certainly didn't need any clocks to determine local time;
practically anyone can estimate the time by looking at the sun. But this is
useless for determining longitude because all you can measure is high noon.
You just don't know if it's high noon at position X or high noon at position
Y. High noon comes to everyplace once every 24 hours. How would you know,
absent some geographical reference, whether you were observing high noon in
Boise, Idaho or high noon in Perth, Australia?

This might be good enough for gardening but leave a bit to be desired should
you be somewhat concerned about the reefs you might be sailing toward.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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Received on Thu Jul 29 2010 - 07:52:32 PDT

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