NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Averaging
From: Chuck Taylor
Date: 2004 Oct 22, 16:31 -0700
From: Chuck Taylor
Date: 2004 Oct 22, 16:31 -0700
Herbert Prinz and I appear to be in disagreement over two points regarding US Power Squadrons (USPS) courses: 1. The acceptability of "high-altitude sights" (over 75 degrees in altitude) in the JN course. 2. The requirement for averaged sights. On item #1, Herbert is correct. The requirement changed between JN-89/92 (in which high-altitude sights were not admitted) and JN-99 (in which high-altitude sights are discouraged, but admitted). Interestingly enough, I have never seen a JN student submit a high-altitude sight, before or after the appearance of JN-99. In any event, I never reject a sight without checking the reference, so I would almost certainly have caught my error had such a sight been sent to me for grading. And if I hadn't, USPS has a grading system under which any sight disqualification must be reviewed by a second person before it becomes official. My apologies to Herbert for my error. As to item 2, the requirement for averaged sights, I wrote: > > One run of 5 averaged sights is > > required for the Navigation course, but averaged > > sights are not otherwise admitted. and Herbert responded: > Nowhere in the manual do I find such a rule. Please > give me the > reference with page number. My manual demands 3 > sights in a run, but no requirement for averaging. Please note carefully that I said the "Navigation" course. I believe that Herbert is referring to the "Junior Navigation" course, or JN-99. USPS offers *two* celestial navigation courses, "Junior Navigaton" and "Navigation". Herbert is correct that nowhere in the "Junior Navigation" course student manual, JN-99, is there a requirement for sight averaging. There is, however, a requirement for sight averaging in the "Navigation" course student manual, N-99, and it is on page 1-4 of N-99 (paragraphs 28 through 32). So, it appears that Herbert and I were writing about two different courses. Best regards to all, Chuck Taylor 47d 55' N 122d 11' W __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail