NavList:

Alexandre:

In point of fact, generally speaking, I cannot dispute your well put points, a possible exception being the following.

I believe, and I could certainly be wrong here, that while The U.S. Naval Academy no longer teaches CN to cadets, The U.S. Coast Guard still requires knowlege thereof re obtaining a deck officers license, this applying to The Merchant Service, whatever might remain thereof. Additionally, Kings Point, otherwise known as The Merchant Marine Academy, I understand, teaches it also, as do however many there might still be of state maratime colleges.

Letting the foregoing slide, if you will, the following, a subjective judgement might prove of interest. Most certainly, I can get my coordinates (Lat/Long) from the least the expensive of hand held GPS units, accurate to 10 feet or so, and quickly too. That's a whole lot better than I could likely ever do shooting celestial bodies with a sextant, assuming Mother Nature cooperates, not always the case, however with the GPS, there is no input from me. I'm simply taking as correct, the numbers produced by a "black box", which more often than not are correct, more than can be said for my numbers. Still, there is the bit about human input, which remains a point of interest. This, possibly odd, archaic interest does not argue against of the sylabus you outlined. Actually, it might serve to re-enforce it, who knows.

Regards.

Alan
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