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Courtney,
Personally, my interest now is in the history for the development of the art
of navigation. It sounds like you want to write an introduction to the
practice of navigation. It�s a great and worthwhile endeavor, but don�t
existing books cover this. The history of the instruments and the technique
itself seem to be harder to root out in the available literature.

Now having said that, do you want to teach the short method based on tables
or get into the underlying theory? If you think its worthwhile to cover the
theory why not do that by starting at the beginning and developing the
history alongside the theory? That would be more interesting, at least in my
own opinion
Robert Gainer


>From: Courtney Thomas 
>Reply-To: Navigation Mailing List 
>To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
>Subject: suggestion for a satisfactory celnav narrative
>Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 09:19:39 -0500
>
>As one who has struggled with a plethora of publications that purport to
>convey the celnav gospel, I'd like to suggest a group project of
>composing a "minimal" narrative of the essentials of celestial
>navigation that would at least do the following, though additions are
>welcomed as the group sees fit, of course, as I'm sure I'm not even
>sufficiently proficient to provide a satisfactory outline, and therefore
>only hope to induce the competent to collaborate:
>
>Also assuming Godelian proficiency unnecessary :-) and hoping an
>included bibliography will gratify those whose requirements are
>unsatisfied by the final group consensus, as well as those merely more
>curious, I submit the following as starting suggestions:
>
>1-a summary narrative - to fully setout a statement of the problem and
>it's currently regarded state of the art solution, omitting all math and
>drawings. This might, for example, omit considerations such as sextants
>and their use, historical considerations, etc., i.e. adhere only to a
>conceptual basis, ignoring the procedural, hence avoiding the conflation
>and inflation of other authors.
>
>2-definitions - only that necessary to familiarize a novice
>with the terminology
>
>3-math & science axioms & drawings - the plane geometry, trigonometry,
>astronomy, physics, etc. deemed indispensible, with a suitable
>bibliography
>
>4-a summary outline - sort of a table of contents writ large, setting
>out a celnav process
>
>5-for each section in #4, a brief narrative of motivation to textually
>succeed each topic -  [To maintain reader clarity, for example, for a
>section on, say, the intercept method, to describe HOW it fits into the
>overall scheme and WHY it is valid.]
>
>6-a summary with example(s) - a final assembly... embodying the initial
>summary, described in #1, but utilizing the actual nuts&bolts contained
>in #s 2 & 3, with nothing more included
>
>[Goal Statement: to layout a minimal, though complete, celnav procedure
>for a novice without omitting unity, while avoiding concision that
>leaves confusion and wonderment.]
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Please leave me out of any debate on the desirability and feasibility.
>If you think it undesirable or infeasible, ignore this suggestion, else
>I thank you for your contribution to it's realization, as will all those
>who follow.
>
>Courtney Thomas

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