COMMENTS ON "THE CELESTIAL NAVIGATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS"

Keith A. Pickering

Peer Reviewed

Abstract: A recent paper published in this journal contains many serious omissions and errors, including several gross misrepresentations of my own work. The hypothesis that Christopher Columbus navigated celestially by means of lower culminations is an old and discredited one. In 1993 and 1994, I suggested that these stars might not have been visible at such low altitudes. Moonlight is particularly important to the visibility issue: the moon was over 90 percent full on those nights around February 3, 1493, when it has been proposed Columbus made a celestially triggered turn eastward.
Published in: NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 46, Number 3
Pages: 227 - 230
Cite this article: Pickering, Keith A., "COMMENTS ON "THE CELESTIAL NAVIGATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS"", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 46, No. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 227-230.
Full Paper: ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit
Sign In