NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Rommel John Miller
Date: 2015 Oct 15, 16:04 -0400
The telegraph uses a nifty little graphic which illustrates the use of sextant and how to align the horizon, etc.
Any idea where I might be able to obtain this graphic to use in teaching elementary celestial navigation to my local USPS group?
It is one thing to see it in a book like Susan Howell’s book does where a circle is given and then the swing of the sextant represented with an arc.
To newbies interested in the field of Celestial seeing a whole ship, then half a ship and then half a ship with sun juxtaposed opposite the half-ship is a better illustration of what to look for on paper.
Out at sea is a different matter because rarely is there anything to scale the division against. Open sea with a relatively flat horizon and knowing your dip is another story altogether.
I am just glad to see the Navy wising up and realizing the Sextant isn’t a toy. In my Navy days we still used the sextant and knew the trig to make those values come true.
It was a sad day when the Navy abandoned Celestial in favor of GPS, but a glorious admission that yes, machines fail and computers get hacked, sextants DON’T!
Any help in finding that graphic in the article however would be appreciated, and I have search the whole gamut of possibilities for finding it on GOOGLE, no luck.
She had to get it from somewhere. I’d just like to find it.
Rommel John Miller
8679 Island Pointe Drive
Hebron, MD 21830-1093
410-219-2690 (Land and Home)
443-365-7925 (Cell)
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of David Pike
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 2:37 PM
To: rommeljohnmiller@gmail.com
Subject: [NavList] Re: US Naval Academy reinstates classes in celestial navigation
The story is now so big that even Drudge links to it.
gl
Glad to see the Telegraph picked a decent sextant for the photo. It looks like a Hughes Three Circle Mates just like mine but a bit younger. I'd be surprised if it was 100% to do with GNSS vulnerability. There might be a certain amount of maintaining the traditions of the service in it too, like getting the creases of your bell-bottomed trousers in the correct positions. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30090214 DaveP
