NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The demographics of astronomy and navigation
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2013 Aug 15, 19:29 -0400
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2013 Aug 15, 19:29 -0400
I am still under the median age here boys so eat your geriatric hearts out!!!! I first learned astro navigation in 1983 out of sheer necessity as it was, at the time, the only means for position fixing. GPS was probably still in the labs back then. After a time, it grew from a practical skill to a passion and I have never looked back. Would I want to learn it today, if I had not done so 30 years ago? Most assuredly, but that is in my nature. Frank wrote: Any thoughts? What brings young people to old subjects?? Relevance? Entertainment? Challenge? Resume-building? It's easy to grumble about "these kids today" but it's no explanation. That applies in any generation. Eno responds. Based on my own observations of today's "youth" and having supervised dozens of 20-somethings over my career, I suggest that young folks today have become accustomed to instant gratification. Need an answer to a science-oriented question? Google it. Need information relating to Roman history? Google it. Need to know your exact position on the face of the earth? Use your cell phone or GPS. In today's technologically-dependent world, there is no longer a need for such arcane pursuits as referencing textbooks to find answers to questions or learning how to use a sextant (or map for that matter) to locate your position on earth. There are any number of whiz-boxes out there than can fulfill anyone's needs from music, to navigation to meeting women (or men). My late friend Bruce Bauer put it more eloquently than I could ever in the preface to the Second Edition to The Sextant Handbook: --------------- Sextant sales in the United States have declined since the First Edition appeared in 1986, and the national debt has increased enormously. While there is no apparent connection, it may be that the same sort of mental attitude is behind both trends-the lust for the easy answer and the quick fix. Why strain to balance the budget when more money can always be borrowed without difficulty or disapprobation-or mess about with an old-fashioned sextant and finical calculations when sleek electronic devices can spit out a position almost instantly without any tiresome figuring? Answers to both questions are evident to thoughtful people: In the end someone must pay for everything, and everything automatic sooner or later fails automatically, usually during or immediately before a crisis. While electronic navigation has grown too comprehensive and convenient to be shunned completely by any but the most fanatical traditionalist, it continues to be vulnerable enough that it would be folly to abandon the practice of taking sights routinely. Merchant ship officers are required to do so. Off the Atlantic coast recently our radar, loran, and single sideband radio all were smoked in one brilliant instant by a lightning stroke merely near our vessel-not even a hit. We who own and cherish sextants do not really care a nanoquark whether sales are up or down. One does not trade them in for new models, nor do they wear out from normal use. The longer you own one the better you like it and the more desirable it seems. Calculator navigation programs have eliminated the mathematical drudgery of tricky multiple interpolation in a maze of figures in tables. A sound sextant, and the ability to use it routinely, without dramatics, is like a balanced budget and money in the bank. It is a source of considerable security and satisfaction. --Bruce Bauer ------------ As if to prove my own point, I did not transcribe the above preface. I scanned the book using OCR software then cut and paste. Like I said, instant gratification. Two bits' worth from a soon to be (but not yet!!!) NavList Grey. Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Reed To: enoid@northwestel.net Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 3:51 PM Subject: [NavList] The demographics of astronomy and navigation There's a lot of "grey" in NavList. As I noted a few months back, our median age is somewhere around 60. At the little presentation I gave on lunars twelve days ago at a very fine old observatory in central Rhode Island, a NavList member was present and before the presentation, he looked across the crowd and noted "looks like a NavList demographic, doesn't it?" We laughed. There were more women present than in the community of celestial navigation enthusiasts, but there was clearly a lot of "grey" in that room (among both genders). Out of about 35 total in attendance, there were two people under 25 (one definitely "in tow" and not there from his own interest). Maybe five were from 26 to 45. The rest were in the "grey" category. Where are all the young people? There's an article on this topic on the Sky & Telescope web site here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Wanted-More-Young-Stargazers-218774471.html It makes some good points. And do read the comments after the article. I especially enjoyed the point made by Tony Flanders about clubs generally. Any thoughts? What brings young people to old subjects?? Relevance? Entertainment? Challenge? Resume-building? It's easy to grumble about "these kids today" but it's no explanation. That applies in any generation. -FER ---------------------------------------------------------------- NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList Members may optionally receive posts by email. 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