Re: [Paddlewise] Longitude and astronomy

From: Bradford R. Crain <crainb_at_pdx.edu>
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:22:18 -0700
I use a sand clock at home. Typically I arrive at work 3 days late
(or is it 4 days early?).
-- 
Bradford R. Crain

Quoting Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>:

> On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 1:49 AM, PeterO  
> <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> ............It looks as if Cook might have used a process such as
>> recalibrating his clock for local time every day against sunrise, sunset
>> and
>> noon. The clock would then only have to remain within spec for 24 hours AND
>> MEASURE LOCAL TIME and not for months or years to maintain synchronism with
>> Greenwich. Presumably there were enough stars visible in both the southern
>> and northern hemispheres so that Cook in Australia could use the tables
>> developed at Greenwich TO TRY OUT THE LUNAR METHOD...........
>>
>> Thinking this over, the ancient Pacific navigators could have used very
> much the same system using a sand-clock calibrated for 24 hours. Accuracy
> would not have been so great but then they would at least have had some
> measure of local time.
>
>
> Craig
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Received on Sat Jul 31 2010 - 10:22:27 PDT

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