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Stacy,

Thanks for going to the horse's mouth on this.  At least the ships'
Navigators are still learning how from you!

Fred

On Thursday, Sep 4, 2003, at 10:08 US/Eastern, Stacy Hanna wrote:

>
>
> Fred Hebard wrote
>
>
>
> "Dr. Ifland repeats the statement that the U.S.NavalAcademy has
>
> discontinued its required course in celestial navigation. Apparently,
>
> the course, which had been taught since the Academy was founded in
>
> 1845, has been replaced with a modern equivalent, as people continue to
>
> maintainon this list that midshipmen are still instructed in celestial
>
> navigation. But apparently they are not instructed as thoroughly or to
>
> such length. At last these conflicting claims about the Academy
>
> abandoning instruction in celestial navigation appear to be clarified."
>
> I checked into it to find out exactly what they are teaching at the
> academy  now and this is what I found. Third year Midshipmen get a 1
> hour class in Celestial Theory, 1 hour on computing Sunrise/Sunset by
> stripform, 1 hour for latitude by LAN, latitude and gyro error by
> Polaris by stripform. They are then tested on doing a full days work
> in navigation using a computer program instead of stripforms. Having
> worked with these midshipmen during their summer cruises and then
> teaching Celestial Navigation to officers who are reporting to ships
> to be Navigators, I can confidently state that Midshipmen are not
> learning Celestial Navigation at the academy.

   

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