NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Celestial Tools V4.4.0
From: Stan K
Date: 2014 Jan 20, 17:18 -0500
From: Stan K
Date: 2014 Jan 20, 17:18 -0500
Attached is a very early beta of Celestial Tools V4.4.0. The major change from previous versions is the addition of several other sight reduction methods on top of the Law of Cosines calculator method and the Nautical Almanac Concise method (NASR) already included. Although the LoC and NASR are the only methods currently taught in Power Squadrons courses, there are three others included in their Sight Reduction Methods learning guide: 249 (Vol. 2 & 3), 229, and Modified 211. It was the recent flurry of activity on NavList regarding older sight reduction methods that got me interested. Looking through all my "learn celestial navigation" books, I see that 249 seems to be the most popular tabular/inspection method included, followed by 229 and 211, with occasional mentions of 214 and 208, for which I have no books (not even Letcher) but which seem to be popular among NavList members. I also do not have anything about the Weems Line of Position method.
I am hoping to eventually include all five numbered methods (249, 229, 214, 211, and 208), but 249 is the only one that is (close to being) done right now. The "form" is styled after the old Power Squadrons form. It can be accessed by clicking on the "SR Methods & Fix" button on the Menu screen.
I would appreciate it if you would run some examples for me. I am interested in the correctness (or lack thereof) of the values, and any formatting issues you might find. Not really relevant, but it should also work outside the 29ºN-to-29ºS declination range of the tables. (Since Celestial Tools is intended for marine navigation, negative values of Ho are limited to -59.9'. In this beta, negative values of Ho are mistakenly treated as positive, resulting in an incorrect value of intercept. This is on the list of things to fix.)
If you uncover any problems, please send the input data to me. If you don't uncover any problems, please let me know anyway.
Thanks.
Stan
I am hoping to eventually include all five numbered methods (249, 229, 214, 211, and 208), but 249 is the only one that is (close to being) done right now. The "form" is styled after the old Power Squadrons form. It can be accessed by clicking on the "SR Methods & Fix" button on the Menu screen.
I would appreciate it if you would run some examples for me. I am interested in the correctness (or lack thereof) of the values, and any formatting issues you might find. Not really relevant, but it should also work outside the 29ºN-to-29ºS declination range of the tables. (Since Celestial Tools is intended for marine navigation, negative values of Ho are limited to -59.9'. In this beta, negative values of Ho are mistakenly treated as positive, resulting in an incorrect value of intercept. This is on the list of things to fix.)
If you uncover any problems, please send the input data to me. If you don't uncover any problems, please let me know anyway.
Thanks.
Stan
