NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Greg Rudzinski
Date: 2014 Jul 15, 11:15 -0700
Capt. Gilbert Rude invented the starfinder in 1920.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_T._Rude
The star finder allows for sight planning so that a round of stars can be efficiently performed during the brief twilight period. The sextant is pre-set to the approximate altitude so that a star will be seen through the sextant optic when held to the horizon in the general azimuth direction. An unidentified star can be observed then identified later during sight reduction using the star finder.
Greg Rudzinski
Rude Starfinder History
From: Doug MacPherson
Date: 2014 Jul 15, 07:08 -0700
I Wws using my Rude Starfinder the other day which prompted some questions concerning the ingenious device.
Does anyone know who invented it (Rude?) and when?
Did it significantly change the way celestial was performed at sea? Were navigators more inclined to observe morning sights vs. evening sights prior to the Rude Starfinder due to the fact that they could identify the constellations prior to morning twighlight?
Thanks!
Doug
