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Gents, Given I recently had a need to drive over to Texas I decided to make this a celestial event. My idea was to drive from my home to a known location out in the local county side. I'd use a DR for an AP, and calculate my position via bubble sextant to determine position. Then when all said and done I'd turn on my phone GPS and see how close I was. So, for you fellows that may also have the final screw lose that enables one to enjoy celestial here is the event:

I knew my approximate course and distance as the crow flies of where I would be going, so given this info I determined a course of 265 true and a distance of 550 miles. Therefore my AP would be 30 00.0 N and 99 00.0W.

I shot:
Sun ( when I arrived in the afternoon)
Moon ( when I arrived)
Later in the evening shot:
Aldebaran
Capella
Sirius
Rigel

For the event I used a recently repaired MKIX, and a MKIX A ( I took two) - thanks for Mr. Bill Morris and his repair manuals I had repaired them both using his manual, and took two in case I had a problem with one. They both however worked well for the event.

After calculations from the above shots I obtained a position of: 30 06.0N and 99 15.7W. Then turned on my cell phone and obtained the following GPS position: 30 04.2 and 99 17.0.

As one can see, my position was some 1.5 miles off. Now, granted I would have enjoyed a .5 or .8 or 0.0 difference, but I'll take 1.5 any day of the week…

I know few in this day and age would appreciate such an event, and I'm sure I was the only person within many miles in Texas that night obtaining a fix with a WWII bubble sextant. But, gaining the position really made my trip more eventful. Even the next day I wore a smile as I worked around the old homestead. Throughout the week I shot other lines of position and checked the MKIX one against the other. For the record the Texas nights being clear and out in the country away from city lights provided a great view of the stars. In fact it was so clear and without ambient light that I found it near to being at sea again.

In any case, I thought if anyone group would appreciate such an event it may indeed be some of you fellow navigators.

Regards, Dan
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