Article ID: CBB001421494

“A Practical Skill That Was without Equal”: Carsten Niebuhr and the Navigational Astronomy of the Arabian Journey, 1761--7 (2013)

unapi

Carsten Niebuhr was the astronomer/cartographer for the Danish expedition to Arabia in 1761--7. He established the practicality of Tobias Mayer's lunar distance method for determining longitude, which became the predominant basis for the determination of longitude in the last decades of the eighteenth century. Niebuhr was also a pioneer in the application of astronomy to hydrography as demonstrated in his charts of the Nile Delta, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Shatt el Arab. He is noted for the precision of his work which was exceptional for the times. However, Niebuhr's accomplishments in navigational astronomy, and their significance have largely gone unrecognized.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001421494/

Similar Citations

Article Webb, Adrian; (2014)
More Than Just Charts: Hydrographic Expertise within the Admiralty, 1795--1829 (/isis/citation/CBB001421385/)

Chapter Emilie Savage-Smith; (2014)
Cartography (/isis/citation/CBB538584160/)

Article Herrera-Casais, Mónica; (2008)
The Nautical Atlases of cAlī al-Sharafī (/isis/citation/CBB000933639/)

Article Amīn, Majdī Yùsef; (2001)
Limitations of Longitude and Latitude Circles Between Al-Byruni and Modern Science (/isis/citation/CBB000751059/)

Article Bosse, David; (2011)
Matthew Clark and the Beginnings of Chart Publishing in the United States (/isis/citation/CBB001221476/)

Article Bulatov, Vladimir E.; (2000)
Eighteenth-Century Russian Charts of the Straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles) (/isis/citation/CBB000671377/)

Chapter Dai Prà, Elena; Davide Allegri; (2016)
Il fiume tra scienza e percezione: l'Adige nella cartografia storica (/isis/citation/CBB011720511/)

Article Zaytsev, Aleksey K.; (2000)
The Three Earliest Charts of Akhtiar (Sevastopol') Harbour (/isis/citation/CBB000671378/)

Chapter Calvo, Emilia; (2007)
Un traité d'Ibn Bāṣo sur la tablette universelle pour toutes les latitudes (/isis/citation/CBB001024048/)

Article Richard de Grijs; Andrew P. Jacob; (2021)
William Dawes: practical astronomy on the ‘First Fleet’ from England to Australia (/isis/citation/CBB079817226/)

Book McConnell, Anita; Martin, Jean-Pierre; Débarbat, Suzanne; (2013)
Méridien, méridienne: textes, enjeux, débats et passions autour des méridiens de Paris et de Greenwich (1783--2000) (/isis/citation/CBB001214469/)

Article Suzanne Débarbat; (2019)
Picard, La Hire et le Royaume de Louis XIV (/isis/citation/CBB248232410/)

Authors & Contributors
Débarbat, Suzanne
Dai Prà, Elena
Grijs, Richard de
Jacob, Andrew P.
Davide Allegri
Blouin, Katherine
Concepts
Cartography
Nautical charts
Longitude and latitude
Hydrography
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Astronomy
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
16th century
Medieval
Ancient
Places
United States
Russia
Adige River (Italy)
Middle and Near East
Greenwich (England)
Nile River
Institutions
Russia. Voennyĭ flot
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Great Britain. Royal Navy
Dutch East India Company
British East India Company
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment