03-31-2018, 05:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-31-2018, 05:22 PM by stevebowers.)
The stars won't be too far off; in fact, using some of the fastest moving stars (especially 61 Cygni) you might be able to calculate the approximate date (within a few decades). From astronomy you could calculate the latitude as well. But longitude is not calculable without a clock, so how could we get a clock?
Having calculated the approximate date using 61 Cygni, the strandees could then search through their database of planetary movements to find a more exact date. Just by observing Jupiter, Saturn and Mars you could find a rough date, and this could be further refined by observing Venus and the Moon. To find the exact sidereal time, you could use the old method of 'lunar distances' which measures the distance between the Moon and various fixed stars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_dist...avigation)
This would need a very good set of reference books, or maybe just an extremely accurate version of Celestia.
Having calculated the approximate date using 61 Cygni, the strandees could then search through their database of planetary movements to find a more exact date. Just by observing Jupiter, Saturn and Mars you could find a rough date, and this could be further refined by observing Venus and the Moon. To find the exact sidereal time, you could use the old method of 'lunar distances' which measures the distance between the Moon and various fixed stars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_dist...avigation)
This would need a very good set of reference books, or maybe just an extremely accurate version of Celestia.