NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Celestial Navigation in the Movies
From: David Pike
Date: 2015 Mar 23, 09:43 -0700
From: David Pike
Date: 2015 Mar 23, 09:43 -0700
Excellent - Das Boot, by far the best demonstration of sextant use is this German WWII submarine movie directed by Wolfgange Petersen in which navigator Kriechbaum takes an sunset star shot with a lovely Plath sextant. All elements are right on! See the attached clip.
Good time for a dawn or sunset compass check, but shouldn't Hs be about 8', not 25° 43.3'. Also, unless the lookout with the chip bag on his head's changed places, the Sun's azimuth's changed through about 180° in 30 seconds. Not to worry. My wife and I recently watched a documentary about Nelson and Lady Hamilton, and in one scene, unless it was shot through a mirror, the Britain's greatest admiral had his left arm removed. Dave
