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On 5/9/2015 4:21 PM, Frank Reed wrote:
>
> Tell me, Bill or
> anyone else, why do you personally think you need a Mercator chart? It's
> not a trick question. I'm just curious what you think you would get from
> one. Can anyone suggest an important reason for using an actual Mercator
> chart for celestial navigation?

Please allow me to modify my answer limited it to cel nav. I see no
reason why after obtaining a fix it makes any difference if you are
transferring it to a Mercator, Polyconic or Gnomonic projection. The
only goal is where am I/was I at some point in time.

> ...I'm attaching here the relevant pages from
> Bowditch. This text and its included example did not change from 1958
> until it was dropped after the 1984 edition.

Thank you

> I do take out the trash. My assistant, Steph, could do it, but I don't
> mind taking out trash. My "lofty title" of head cartographer is
> accurate, and it was intended to be funny for those of you who have
> "known" me for years (even if only online) ...And when I speak about map
> projections, I know what I am talking about.

I found it humorous, and my question was meant in jest. If any offense
was taken I apologize, none was meant. I find you quite brilliant on
many subjects. After all, who else do I know, if only online, who gets
to hang with Neil deGrasse Tyson and be an invited guest on his show to
inform us the Earth is still rebounding from the ice age?

> I don't use or teach from Howell's book for two reasons: first and
> foremost, it's "70s style navigation". If I want historical
> navigation methods, why would I go back to the disco era??

You apparently have not lived long enough to watch things cycle. Disco
will return (assuming it ever left Indiana), as Donna Summer has never
left the playlist of some radio stations. Bell bottoms and hip huggers
made a come back. GM, Ford and Chrysler have retro editions of the Chevy
Camaro (mostly), Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger
(somewhat). I'm holding my breath for a retro"Hemi under glass". Young
women now sport some tattoos that might cause war-time sailors or
Marines to blush. Even Betty Boop is back in vogue.

Aiming a glancing blow at Indiana's Governor Pence shortly after his
signing the "Religious Freedom Act" bill into law,  SNL's character
Jebidiah Atkinson (an 1860's newspaper reviewer) said of the retro TV
series "Mad Men;" “The most likable character on this TV show is
cigarettes,” adding, “Hey AMC, if I wanted to know what life was like in
the 1960s, I'd move to Indiana. I've been around a long time and it
never has been a great state."

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, disco will will return in one form or another.

So what's next? Tube amplifiers for headphones?

   

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