NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The End of Celestial Navigation??
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2008 Jan 2, 15:23 -0500
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2008 Jan 2, 15:23 -0500
On Jan 2, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Lu Abel wrote: > > > > Greg R. wrote: >> --- frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.net wrote: >> >> >>> What do you think he's talking about? >>> >> >> Obviously someone who hasn't had a major electrical/electronics >> failure >> while out on the open ocean... ;-) >> > Would that include my quartz crystal controlled watch? > > I truly believe in the adage that a good navigator has two or more > sources of positional information available. And only a fool > would go > offshore with a single GPS set, even if it were integrated into the > fanciest electronic charting system. > > But I can't figure out why the "can't trust electronics, gotta use > celestial" crowd seems perfectly happy with electronic chronometers > (synchronized, of course, by listening to WWV or BBC), and perhaps > even > reducing their sights using a calculator. Those electronics are > subject to exactly the same failure modes as GPS sets. The answer leads us back to the subject: lunars. Of course you have to trust the Nautical Almanac, but.... Fred Hebard --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
