NavList:

Well we have traversed quite a few nautical miles this tour, and my sextant was always at the ready when the weather cooperated.

 

We have a cadet this tour and as part of his sea project he must make celestial observations.  Much to his chagrin, I have been pushing him to make observations above and beyond his base requirements.  He made the "mistake" of shooting a moon line near noon without knowing how complicated the reduction is.  I ran him through it, but I don't see him shooting any more moonlines.  He is required to use HO 229 for all of his reductions which is too bad, as I would love to show him the joys of HO 249 for reduction purposes.  For my efforts, I am using the Nautical Almanac but use my Tamaya NC-2 for the triangle reductions and SkyMate Pro software for my star fixes.

 

Thus far I have in excess of 250 individual LOPs, 7 azimuths, 7 amplitudes, and 18 lunar distances. 

 

Highlights include circles of equal altitude of the sun, an amplitude of the moon; Lunars using the sun, 3 planets, and 1 star; multi-moon shots near upper transit for Lat and Longitude when the moon was close to the celestial equator (we were also heading South at a fair clip), multi-moon lines away from transit for a fix, a backsight, and lots of star fixes including one shot pre-dawn by the light of the moon.

 

We are due to head south again in a few weeks and are going around the horn of Africa.  I am hoping that time and weather will cooperate and perhaps I can manage a lower transit of Acrux. 

 

I am compiling a navigational log with sights, plots, and commentary that should be "published" when I return home in October and can get to a scanner to digitize all of my hand written work.  I hope that people will find the different kinds of sights good practice for their various reduction techniques.

 

Jeremy