NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Calculators
From: Craig Scott
Date: 1999 Sep 03, 4:00 PM
From: Craig Scott
Date: 1999 Sep 03, 4:00 PM
With the solar maximum (flares) predicting to increase until peaking about 2002, I wouldn't rely too much on GPS satellites and other electronic navigation aids being reliable. Craig Scott Columbia, South Carolina -----Original Message----- From Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM] On Behalf Of Bill Murdoch Sent: Thursday, September 02, 1999 13:49 To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Re: Calculators I guess my first point is that astro navigation calculators run from $10 trig function calculators to Pentium IIIs. All of them are useful. The first $10 replaces several pounds of sight reduction books by solving the cosine formula. The next $25 will get you a solar almanac and replace the dip and refraction tables along with the pencil needed to do the sums to reduce a sun sight. The next $50 will buy enough calculator to replace all the other information in the Nautical Almanac. The last $2000 makes it all very slick. There are good reasons for stopping anywhere along that path; especially in the days of GPS when astro is basically a hobby.Bill Murdoch
