Astronomy and astrology in Middle-Earth? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

William Cloud Hicklin · 01-03-2008, 09:59 AM

Remember that the Numenoreans and to a lesser extent the Gondorians were great mariners: which implies that astronomy was cultivated for the purpose of navigation. This might conceivably have even included longitude as well as latitude: there are clock-independent ways of calculating long, such as tracking Jupiter's moons, provided you have sufficiently accurate instruments and the tables worked out correctly. Nor I suppose should we discount the possibility that the Numenoreans had developed the marine chronometer, since even the backwards Shire-hobbits had clocks.

01-03-2008, 09:59 AM	#3
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,330	Remember that the Numenoreans and to a lesser extent the Gondorians were great mariners: which implies that astronomy was cultivated for the purpose of navigation. This might conceivably have even included longitude as well as latitude: there are clock-independent ways of calculating long, such as tracking Jupiter's moons, provided you have sufficiently accurate instruments and the tables worked out correctly. Nor I suppose should we discount the possibility that the Numenoreans had developed the marine chronometer, since even the backwards Shire-hobbits had clocks. __________________ The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.