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Nautical Astronomy and the Mercator Principle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Charles H. Cotter
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Extract

Arising from my recent note on short-method nautical astronomical tables, Dr. G. D. Raasveldt of The Netherlands has commented on an elegant solution to the general nautical astronomical problem developed in 1884 by Captain (later Commandant) Emile Guyou of the French Navy. Guyou's method is, indeed, ingenious: it affords an extremely brief solution to the problems of computing hour angle and azimuth given the three sides of the astronomical or PZX triangle. Moreover, by its principles all problems in nautical astronomy may be solved by means of one single-entry table. Sines and cosines, tangents and cotangents, secants and cosecants, versines and haversines—natural and logarithmic—are all made redundant for this purpose by a table whose function is, in general, limited to mercator sailing. This is the common ‘Meridional Parts Table for the Sphere’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 14 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1976

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References

REFERENCES

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