Calculating the distance of the moon in Newton's day

[bobsmith76]

my book says that the distance of the moon from the Earth was known in Newton's time but it doesn't say how they figured it out. it's 380,000 km. does anyone know how they knew it?

 

[SteamKing]

Try this link:
http://io9.com/5688939/how-to-measure-the-distance-from-the-earth-to-the-moon

 

[IsometricPion]

Wikipedia has http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparchus_On_Sizes_and_Distances" on the works of Hipparhus in this regard. Presumably measurements had improved somewhat over the intervening centuries (especially after the invention of the telescope and the publishing of Tycho's catalog).