NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The End of Celestial Navigation??
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2008 Jan 02, 12:28 -0800
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2008 Jan 02, 12:28 -0800
Fred Hebard wrote: > On Jan 2, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Lu Abel wrote: > > >> >> Greg R. wrote: >> >>> --- frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.net wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>>> What do you think he's talking about? >>>> >>>> >>> Obviously someone who hasn't had a major electrical/electronics >>> failure >>> while out on the open ocean... ;-) >>> >>> >> Would that include my quartz crystal controlled watch? >> >> I truly believe in the adage that a good navigator has two or more >> sources of positional information available. And only a fool >> would go >> offshore with a single GPS set, even if it were integrated into the >> fanciest electronic charting system. >> >> But I can't figure out why the "can't trust electronics, gotta use >> celestial" crowd seems perfectly happy with electronic chronometers >> (synchronized, of course, by listening to WWV or BBC), and perhaps >> even >> reducing their sights using a calculator. Those electronics are >> subject to exactly the same failure modes as GPS sets. >> > > The answer leads us back to the subject: lunars. Of course you have > to trust the Nautical Almanac, but.... > > Fred Hebard > Which is generated using *electronic* computers. Darn, where are those 19th century logarithm tables when we need them!! :-P --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---