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Charles,

I am most curious to learn what a "lunar standstill" is.  Please give me
a thumbnail on what it is and what you may find in the stone circles
when it occurs.

Thanks,
Arthur

-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM] On Behalf Of Charles Tait
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 12:07 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: GPS and uncloaking

Hi there

I have been silently following the delurkers.  Surely the real thing
with all technology is to properly understand the interface and how the
data is presented as well as how it works in a basic way.  This applies
whether one is trying to use an astrolabe, modern sextant, GPS, or
whatever.  It is quite easy to get lost with a properly working, but
badly programmed or interpreted GPS.  And of course the British Navy
quite often made serious navigational errors before they knew about how
to get their longitude accurately.

We have done lots of yacht trips around the north and west of Scotland,
always using the electronics as back up to our "real" navigation.
However when the pea soup fog rolls in here in Orkney I can assure you
all that there is nothing to beat radar!  Also I would echo the comments
on astro navigation.  Around Scottish waters I think generally it would
be hard to navigate safely with a sextant, because the reliability of
getting a fix can be 0% so often.  We have found that the number of
occasions to actually get a useful position this way has been close to
zero, but the fun in doing it still justifies trying.

On a completely different tack we are looking at the next major lunar
standstill in 2006 and will be attempting to observe putative alignments
at various UK stone circles and other ancient places.  These include
Brodgar in orkney, Callanish on Lewis, as well as other places.

relurking...
--
Charles Tait Photographic Limited, Kelton, St Ola, Orkney, UK  KW15 1TR
Tel 01856 873738  Fax  01856 875313  Mobile 07785 220269
All outgoing and incoming mail is checked by Norton Antivirus 2003
email  charles.tait@zetnet.co.uk
website http://www.charles-tait.co.uk

   

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