NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Patrick Burgess
Date: 2017 Sep 4, 14:09 -0700
Another newbie interjects!
On the subject of self reliance and and the best method of calculation. When Homo Sapiens started trying to fly he, initially, turned to the natural world, for inspiration. By the same token one could look to the natural world for navigation methods - the North American Monarch butterfly migrates thousands of miles (in the space of three generations) without the use of calculators, or pen and pencil. A more philosophic than technical remark than the choice of hand calculator perhaps. But consider the example of the Globe Star. Professor Creamer sailed his 35 ft yacht round the world in 1982 to 1984 with no time pieces, sextants or even a compass; he only carried a sand hourglass for watch changes (he had a crew of two).
Not to belabour the point, but. almanacs, sextants, and even trigonometry, are relatively recent inventions, just as is the GPS.
Please excuse the digression, folks - back to Jing's enquiry!
Patrick Burgess
retired Seismic Exlorationist (GSI)
