NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Sean C
Date: 2013 Jul 6, 00:19 -0700
Just got this program working again on my laptop thanks to DosBox. I must say I really like this program. No frills, just all the necessary almanac data for CN. And the customizable output is super-handy.
Attached is an example showing the Sunrise/set and twilight times for a typical 3 day period from the almanac along with RAs and Declinations for star-finder setup and a sample of computed azimuths and altitudes of all bodies above the horizon + the Sun at evening twilight. All this was compiled with literally just a few keystrokes. And it's free! (Plus it's small...1.18MB total.) Note: The output is simple text, I converted it to PDF.
Many outputs can be tailored to any interval of time down to 1 second and for practically any time span. Three days or thirty, or whatever you like. The UI is almost completely intuitive, but the included manual has some not-so-obvious tips, such as:
-In order to get data for Deneb, you must type "Deneb_", otherwise you will always get Denebola
-In the "F7-Navigation" function, typing "all" will give all bodies above the horizon at the given time (As in my example)
-All times are to be entered in TDT except for "F7-Navigation" and "F5-Sidereal Time", which require UT
Those are all the main idiosyncrasies, anyway.
Other features include:
-Geocentric, heliocentric, barycentric and other positions
-Rise/set and transit times of the Moon and other solar system objects
-Illumination and rotation data for the moon and planets
...basically all of the data found in the Astronomical Almanac.
The program was discontinued in 1990 and replaced with "MICA" - the Mutiyear Interactive Computer Almanac. (Which is not free.) I have noticed some discrepancies with my printed Naut. Almanac when using ICE, but these have always been within 0.1 arc minute. I'm not sure, but this may have something to do with the apparently incorrect (and unalterable) delta-T value. ICE covers the time period between Dec. 21st, 1800 and Jun. 7th, 2049.
Regards,
Sean C.
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