NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The Future of Celestial Navigation: A British Viewpoint
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2013 Sep 2, 10:31 -0700
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2013 Sep 2, 10:31 -0700
I was about to dismiss this paper as a troglodyte yearning for an old method of navigation (eg, he barely mentions "availability" of stars for sights -- forget clouds, how about the fact that except for the sun and moon, I can only take shots at dawn and dusk?). But then near the end he mentions automated celestial systems.
If we want to discuss the future of celestial navigation, I think it should not be in the context of 18th century instruments and sight reduction, but in the context of 21st century technology. Would it be possible to fabricate a relatively inexpensive system that can be mounted on a ship and automatically take sights? Oh, and with today's computer technology, having the device automatically reduce them? Come to think of it, didn't the SR71 Blackbird airplane do this -- and back in the 1960s?
If we want to discuss the future of celestial navigation, I think it should not be in the context of 18th century instruments and sight reduction, but in the context of 21st century technology. Would it be possible to fabricate a relatively inexpensive system that can be mounted on a ship and automatically take sights? Oh, and with today's computer technology, having the device automatically reduce them? Come to think of it, didn't the SR71 Blackbird airplane do this -- and back in the 1960s?
From: Andrés Ruiz <navigationalalgorithms@gmail.com>
To: luabel@ymail.com
Sent: Sunday, September 1, 2013 11:31 PM
Subject: [NavList] The Future of Celestial Navigation: A British Viewpoint
The Future of Celestial Navigation: A British Viewpoint:ftp://tycho.usno.navy.mil/pub/TimeAndNavigation/FutureOfCelestialNavigation_Steve.Bell.pdf
--
Andrés Ruiz
Navigational Algorithms
http://sites.google.com/site/navigationalalgorithms/: http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=125036