UW-Milwaukee Department of Mathematical Sciences presents,
Mr. Steven Schwengels;
Senior Lecturer
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Friday September 25, 2015
2:00pm in EMS E495

**Light Refreshments will be served beginning at 1:30pm in EMS E424A**

Title:
Celestial Navigation “Lunars”

Description/Abstract:
Navigators have been able to approximate their latitude since before the 14th century, but computation of longitude was difficult until the mid-18th century, when the development of the chronometer and the lunars made such approximations possible.

When a ship’s chronometer becomes unreliable, an adjustment is calculated by “lunars”, that is, by measuring the angular distance between the sun and the moon and doing a little mathematics.