NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The End of Celestial Navigation??
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2008 Jan 2, 15:48 -0500
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2008 Jan 2, 15:48 -0500
On Jan 2, 2008, at 3:28 PM, Lu Abel wrote: > > Fred Hebard wrote: >> On Jan 2, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Lu Abel wrote: >> >> >>> >>> Greg R. wrote: >>> >>>> --- frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.net wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> What do you think he's talking about? >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Obviously someone who hasn't had a major electrical/electronics >>>> failure >>>> while out on the open ocean... ;-) >>>> >>>> >>> Would that include my quartz crystal controlled watch? >>> >>> I truly believe in the adage that a good navigator has two or more >>> sources of positional information available. And only a fool >>> would go >>> offshore with a single GPS set, even if it were integrated into the >>> fanciest electronic charting system. >>> >>> But I can't figure out why the "can't trust electronics, gotta use >>> celestial" crowd seems perfectly happy with electronic chronometers >>> (synchronized, of course, by listening to WWV or BBC), and perhaps >>> even >>> reducing their sights using a calculator. Those electronics are >>> subject to exactly the same failure modes as GPS sets. >>> >> >> The answer leads us back to the subject: lunars. Of course you have >> to trust the Nautical Almanac, but.... >> >> Fred Hebard >> > Which is generated using *electronic* computers. Darn, where are > those 19th century logarithm tables when we need them!! :-P Maybe when we ban those pesky electronic computers we can go back to human computers! Just think, new employment opportunities! ;) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
