NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Star finding techniques
From: Stan K
Date: 2016 Apr 21, 22:31 -0400
From: Stan K
Date: 2016 Apr 21, 22:31 -0400
Bill,
Correct me if I am wrong, but the way I read your message is that you are interested in learning the night sky, at least as far as the navigational stars are concerned. Several of the other responses seem to have interpreted it as you were looking for ways to pre-plan a round of sights. If the former, the "Sextant Stars" program for Android is a good choice (other option could be books), but if the latter, there are computer programs for every platform that are much easier to use than the 2102-D Star Finder or similar.
Stan
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Lionheart <NoReply_Lionheart@fer3.com>
To: slk1000 <slk1000@aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Apr 21, 2016 1:34 pm
Subject: [NavList] Star finding techniques
From: Bill Lionheart <NoReply_Lionheart@fer3.com>
To: slk1000 <slk1000@aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Apr 21, 2016 1:34 pm
Subject: [NavList] Star finding techniques
Thanks Frank your brain gym idea made me think. Being in my 50s I try the exercise my brain with new tasks like trying to get good enough at morse to have a descent CW conversation. More relevant to NavList, I am having a go at learning to recognise the navigational stars. When I first did the RYA YM ocean course in the 1980s I had a wonderful teacher who would look up and see a star peep briefly from clouds of the Oxfordshire sky and say " that is Aldebran " without any other reference points. How do I aquire that skill? Of course she learnt it from continuous practice on ocean passages. Any tips from the experts? I have yet to do any really long passages and the sky is rarely clear where I live in Derbyshire.
Bill
