Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:15:36.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nautical Astronomy and the Mercator Principle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Charles H. Cotter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Cotter, C. H. (1974). A study of a species of short-method tables. This Journal, 27, 395.Google Scholar
2Guyou, E. (1884). Étude Théoriquesdcs Courbes de Hauteur. Paris.Google Scholar
3Hilleret, G. (1874). Étude sur les courbes de hauteur (deuxième partie) Revue Maritime et Coloniale. 30, 94.Google Scholar
4Guyou, E. (1884). Calcul du point observé a l'aide de la table des latitudes croissantes. Annales Hydrographiques. Paris.Google Scholar
5Guyou, E. (1896). LesProblemesde Navigation et la Carte Marine. Paris.Google Scholar
6Friocourt, G. (1899). Tables de Logarithmes … et Tables de Navigation. Paris.Google Scholar
7Goodwin, H. B. (1895). A nautical astronomy of a new type. Nautical Magazine. 64. pp. 979–92, pp. 1069–80.Google Scholar
8Gougenheim, A. (1949). Computation of the fix at sea by means of Commandant Guyou's ‘Pocket Tables’. International Hydrographic Review. 26, 99–106.Google Scholar