NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The point of it all
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2006 Jun 26, 17:27 -0700
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2006 Jun 26, 17:27 -0700
Fred Hebard wrote: > On Jun 26, 2006, at 10:39 AM, Lu Abel wrote: > >> What I am trying to do is to provoke some thought. Some on this list >> might say celestial navigation is "traditional" and "electronics >> free." >> >> Is that really true when I take a sight, glance at my electronic watch >> to get the time, look up body information in my computer-generated >> nautical almanac and, eschewing sight reduction using a pocket >> calculator, instead do "traditional" sight reduction using >> computer-generated tables? >> >> Lu Abel > > > Lu, > > The NA and sight reduction tables were generated by hand before > electronic computers, and could be again, although perhaps not as > detailed as HO229 and HO249. Mechanical chronometers, which were > available, more-or-less, with the onset of the NA, also could be used > instead of electronic ones, or we could do lunars. > > Fred Agreed. As I said, I was just trying to provoke some thought amongst those who think they're doing traditional navigation but really are highly reliant on electronics, just not on their boat... Lu
