I agree with Connie. "Longitude" is a great read for any sailor. sal In a message dated 12/4/2014 2:11:34 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, chbenneck@gmail.com writes: On 12/4/2014 2:01 PM, Thomas Buzzi wrote: Tom I also can highly recommend the Dava Sobel book on "Longitude". She describes the basic problem that mariners had determining longitude, and then tells the story of how the British Government put up a prize for anyone who could make an accurate chronometer. The Government was pressured to do this because of all the naval and merchant ships that were lost as a result of not having an accurate way to establish longitude reliably. If you divide the earth's circumference of 360 degrees by 24 hours, your answer shows you that the earth rotates 15 degrees per hour. Wherever you may be on the surface of the earth, the sun rises, climbs to its meridian at what navigators call Local Apparent Noon (LAN) at your location, and then starts descending again. If you had an accurate time piece set to Greenwich Mean Time, and the time pieces' error rate was constant, then knowing that, and the time of your LAN it is a very simple math problem to determine how far West or East of Greenwich you are located at that specific moment If you measure the height of the sun at that point; and note the exact time of the observation, in seconds; minutes; and hours, you can now establish your longitudinal position (dependent on the accuracy of your measurements). You have to do it in that order since each second counts in the calculation, and accuracy of time of observation is critical. Seconds change rapidly, minutes only 60 seconds later.... Example: New York City is roughly at 75 degrees W Longitude from 0 degree Greenwich, England. Divide 75 degrees by 15 (the degrees in an hour) and you will see that New York's geographical position is 5 hours West of Greenwich. This goes on until you reach the 180th degree West, called the International Date Line, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. When you reach the International Date Line heading West from the USA, it is Thursday; but once you have crossed the Date Line it becomes Friday, and the beginning of a new day for the 180 degree East of Greenwich area of the world. ------------------------------- Last thought: If a salt water wave or spray hits my sextant I can just rinse it off with fresh water and dry it with a towel and it keeps working (with a drop of oil in the mechanism once in awhile) Gin also will do the job, but I don't think my rinse solutions will work for electronics.... They are nice toys and give you pretty pictures but don't trust your life or the safety of your boat to them. They are only a secondary source of information. Learn to do dead reckoning navigation the classical way, and you will always be safe. Connie
thanks to all that took the time to share their ideas about this. I have a pretty good idea of what course to take. I also have a lead on a what sounds like a very interesting book. Fair winds, Tom B, Mont 17 #258