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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Electronics combined with celestial navigation
From: Greg B
Date: 2015 Jan 10, 17:29 -0500
From: Greg B
Date: 2015 Jan 10, 17:29 -0500
Hi Lu,
Liked your answer. My first choice is a app called "Celestial" by Navimatics - it solves for Hc & Az, and has a built in almanac.
No cell service required; for backup I have a TI-30Xa that cost me all of $16.xx that I keep in a waterproof - floating cellphone
bag, and, a 3X5 card with Hc & Az formulas on it. Along with a hard copy Nautical Almanac printed from a Navsoft program.
To get time my 'deck watch' is a cheap quartz pocket watch that is accurate to about 1 second every 5 days; and I always reset it to
WWV (via a on board SW radio) once a day - I pair that with a stop watch and I'm golden. You spoke about the IBM 1401; I got out
of the air Force in 1972 and went to work for a small company that made state of the art computer tape drives (circa 1972) at
lunch time all the engineers and technicians would grab there lunch and sit around a computer in the lab; a old PDP 11 , and play
'Lunar Lander' (the "screen" was a TTY machine!) Yet we all thought it didn't get any better than that. You also mentioned HO229,
well the auxiliary tables in 229 are from a time before anyone had envisioned the portable calculator. Yet I understand both points
of view - I do Rev War historical reenacting circa 1775 and portray a land surveyor. When I do, everything must be done as in 1775,
when I do celestial this way its a lot of laborious work, and one small error and I start from scratch again. Very humbling! I am truly
impressed by the amount of period math knowledge on this list. As for myself, like you - I too am a 'rag-hanger', with a Catalina 28
that does basic coastal navigation (DR & Pilotage) so all my CN is for fun; and like you if the wind dies I crank up the 'Iron Genoa' :-)
~Greg
P.S. What type of boat do you have?
On 01/10/2015 02:11 PM, Lu Abel wrote:
Liked your answer. My first choice is a app called "Celestial" by Navimatics - it solves for Hc & Az, and has a built in almanac.
No cell service required; for backup I have a TI-30Xa that cost me all of $16.xx that I keep in a waterproof - floating cellphone
bag, and, a 3X5 card with Hc & Az formulas on it. Along with a hard copy Nautical Almanac printed from a Navsoft program.
To get time my 'deck watch' is a cheap quartz pocket watch that is accurate to about 1 second every 5 days; and I always reset it to
WWV (via a on board SW radio) once a day - I pair that with a stop watch and I'm golden. You spoke about the IBM 1401; I got out
of the air Force in 1972 and went to work for a small company that made state of the art computer tape drives (circa 1972) at
lunch time all the engineers and technicians would grab there lunch and sit around a computer in the lab; a old PDP 11 , and play
'Lunar Lander' (the "screen" was a TTY machine!) Yet we all thought it didn't get any better than that. You also mentioned HO229,
well the auxiliary tables in 229 are from a time before anyone had envisioned the portable calculator. Yet I understand both points
of view - I do Rev War historical reenacting circa 1775 and portray a land surveyor. When I do, everything must be done as in 1775,
when I do celestial this way its a lot of laborious work, and one small error and I start from scratch again. Very humbling! I am truly
impressed by the amount of period math knowledge on this list. As for myself, like you - I too am a 'rag-hanger', with a Catalina 28
that does basic coastal navigation (DR & Pilotage) so all my CN is for fun; and like you if the wind dies I crank up the 'Iron Genoa' :-)
~Greg
P.S. What type of boat do you have?
On 01/10/2015 02:11 PM, Lu Abel wrote:
German:
I think "electronics" is way too broad a brush.
Think "paper" for celestial: Does that include the Nautical Almanac? Paper on which to write down my solutions? HO229/249/NASR/etc as sight reduction tables? Some of those? All of those??
Now think electronics. When the term "electronics for navigation" is used most people think of GPS. And GPS, while one of the most significant navigation-related developments ever (on the par with chronometers, IMHO) is also vulnerable -- for example, to jamming. And so many offshore navigators feel that a knowledge of celestial is essential when the screen suddenly goes blank.
But there are certainly other "electronics" that can be used in navigation. For example, a scientific calculator. I have a solar-powered scientific calculator that I purchased two decades ago for $15. It claims that if you can see the screen there's enough light to power it. Would it be okay for me to do my sight reductions using it or is that "dependent on electronics?"
If one were to say "use tables, not a calculator" they need to realize that sight reduction tables are produced using computers. Would that be okay to one concerned about "use of electronics?" In fact, HO229 has a long preface describing how the tables were generated and checked using an IBM 1401 computer (state of the art in the 1950s).
I own a sailboat. I love the peace and calm of allowing the wind to silently move my boat towards its destination. But when the wind dies I'm happy to turn on my engine. I feel the same about CN -- know it, use it, but be happy to use "electronics" when called for.
Lu
On 1/9/2015 11:56 AM, German Diaz wrote:
Hi Celestial navigators, I read some posts where people use electronics in their calculations of celestial navigation . I wonder why, if the philosophy of celestial navigation is to be used when electronics are not available?.
always clear sky,
Germán
