NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Status of Celestial Nav in 2015
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Mar 5, 21:34 +0000
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Mar 5, 21:34 +0000
Alex:
I seem to recollect once reading a statement saying that GPS was designed for use at 70 degrees latitude or less, but I haven't been able to find a reference to that. On the other hand, since GPS was initially designed as a positioning system for the US military, I can't imagine them settling for a system that didn't work world-wide including above 70 degrees. And I believe there are trans-polar commercial flights that get closer to the poles -- and like all commercial aircraft these days -- use GPS.
If you recollect the original question, it was about recreational sailors using celestial. I'd have to wonder how many of them go north (or south) of Lat 70....
Lu
From: Alexandre Eremenko <NoReply_Eremenko@fer3.com>
To: luabel@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2015 11:51 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Status of Celestial Nav in 2015
Lu, Is GPS navigation really available everywhere? In particular in the Polar regions? If not, what is the other reliable way of navigation in polar regions? Alex. ________________________________________ From: NavList@fer3.com [NavList@fer3.com] on behalf of Lu Abel [NoReply_LuAbel@fer3.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 8:51 PM To: eremenko---.edu Subject: [NavList] Re: Status of Celestial Nav in 2015 Remember that this started as a discussion of why one would use celestial in 2015. Emergency navigation was given as one possibility. I rather suspect that in the two examples given by Greg the explorer was using celestial as a primary means. That begs the question of "why?" From: Greg Rudzinski To: luabel{at}ymail.com Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 4:46 PM Subject: [NavList] Re: Status of Celestial Nav in 2015 Alex,Sam Willis used celestial navigation on his trip down the Grand Canyon last summer. See link to BBC show that has Sam making observations using an artificial horizon.http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2f1pxgGeoffrey Kolbe posted several years back on his North African desert celestial navigation using a bubble octant. http://geoffrey-kolbe.com/C-Nav/index.htmGreg Rudzinski From: Alexandre Eremenko Date: 2015 Mar 4, 22:00 +0000 Greg, you wrote: > I would add remote wilderness travelers to the list of those that might find celestial navigation a useful back-up to GPS. > A plastic sextant such as the Davis MK 3 wouldn't add much weight to the pack. You would add this to the the question or this is a part of an answer? Do you know any people traveling in remote wilderness (on land) who are using Cel nav, or carry sextants, almanacs, etc.? I have never heard of such people in modern times. Alex. : http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Status-Celestial-Nav-2015-LuAbel-mar-2015-g30568
