Nevil Maskelyne served as Astronomer Royal from 1765 to his death in 1811. In 1766, Maskelyne published his first annual Nautical Almanac which provided tables of lunar elevation every noon at midnight at various places around the world, thus enabling mariners to establish their accurate location on the earth’s surface. His work intersected with the development of a sea-going chronometer by Harrison (q.v.), a method of finding longitude which Maskelyne did much to oppose, favouring his own method of calculations based on lunar tables.
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Nevil Maskelyne". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 January 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12539, accessed 23 November 2024.]
