The Correction of Astro Fixes for Precession

Extract

On page 268 of Volume I of this Journal, published in July 1948, A. H. Jessell called attention to a simple method of correcting fixes, or position lines, deduced from astronomical data referred to a fixed epoch, for the effect of precession and nutation since that epoch. This paper has generally been regarded as the first reference to this method, but it now appears that (as so often happens!) it was anticipated by Lieut.-Commander M. Bini, Italian Navy, in ‘Principi di un nuovo metodo per la determinazione immediata del punto nave astronomico’ (On the principle of a new method for the immediate determination of astronomical fixes), a paper presented at the meeting of the Italian Academy of Sciences on 8 November 1947 and later published in Atti della Academia Nazionale dei Lincei (Series VIII, Vol. III, Nov. 1947).

An article by Bini, in which the possibilities of the method were touched upon, was also published in March 1947 in Rivista Marittima.