Stark Tables for Clearing the Lunar Distance and Finding Universal Time by Sextant Observation

Author: Bruce Stark
ISBN 9780914025214
Paperback, 340 pages, 8.25" x 11"
Starpath Publications

Navigation historian Bruce Stark has devoted many years to perfecting this modern version of Lunar Distance tables. To our knowledge, there are no other versions of this type of table in print today, although tables of this type were indeed the mainstay of navigation up till about 1900. They can be used by navigators for practicing the old ways, or they can indeed be used to find your longitude today without GMT. See recent article on the role of lunars today.

Practice with "lunars" is certainly an aerobatic flight in the world of celestial navigation, but those who do it become the very best celestial navigators, in part because accurate sights are required as well as careful analysis.

Here is an example of lunar longitude measurement. A past issue of the Navigator's Newsletter tells of a Lunar distance seminar that Bruce Stark presented at Starpath.

You can see how 19th century navigators studied Lunars in our elibra publication of the 1851 edition of The American Practical Navigator, by Nathanial Bowditch. This electronic reproduction was made from an original edition made available to Starpath from Bruce Stark.

Click here for a useful review of the Stark Tables. Written by Jan Kalivoda.

Click here for extra copies of the Stark Lunar Work Forms that are given in the book.

Here is a detailed article on the use of Steve Miller's modified Stark work form, along with a spreadsheet copy of his form.