Moonlight - Abraham Lincoln and the Almanac Trial

[David Lockmiller]

Quoting from the article:

"At the request from various Lincoln historians over the years, the lunar phase and time of moonset on the night of August 29-30, 1857, have been calculated by many prominent astronomers -- in 1871 by Elias J. Loomis, in 1909 and again in 1925 by Joel Stebbins, in 1925 by the staff of Yerkes Observatory, in 1928 by Harvard College Observatory, in 1905, 1925, and 1976 by the U. S. Naval Observatory. All found moonset time near 12:04 a.m. on August 30, 1857, supporting Lincoln's claim that the moon at 11 p.m. on the 29th was low and near to setting."

The table titled THE MOON "RUNS LOW" ON AUGUST 29-30, 1857 on page 188 of the Sky and Telescope, August 1990 issue shows that on August 29, 1857 at 11 p.m. the moon stood at 8 degrees altitude above the horizon at the time of the fatal fight.

As Carl Sagan might say: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."