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    Re: Sextant and iPhone on the QM2
    From: Alan S
    Date: 2013 Nov 15, 20:55 -0800

    Frank:

    Re your last, point taken. On your quoting Nial, you have me there too. As to such virtues as Celestial Navigation might still have, other methods having failed, it would still work, likely with much less precision than other methods, but with as much precision as it ever had, which I believe was sufficient.

    What I presume to describe as Celestial Navigation, might well give many a laugh, as I'm limited to either shooting Am/PM sun shots from the beach in North Carolina, when we can get there, sometimes sun/moon shots and rarely planet/star shots, star shots just don't seem to work out for me,seeing how close I come to an electronic fix (GPS coordinates), or playing around with an artificial horizon at home in Pittsburgh. Don't have a boat, and I tend to get seasick on small boats anyhow.

    So for me, while it might no no longer be navigation, in any sense, given that I find playing around with a precision instrument interesting, playing with numbers also, even though my mathematical background is skimpy indeed,it is for me at least, an intellectual exercise, keeps the little wheels in my head going around, "splash lubricated" if nothing else.

    Funny, but a $70 hand held GPS will give one their location to within 10 feet or so, while with a $600 or more sextant, accuracy of position that falls inside a couple of miles of a known position is not bad, actually it's pretty good, isn't it? Maybe I'm simply a kid grown old, not "up", but I suppose it is the operator input that makes the process interesting, more interesting than simply taking numbers given one by a "black box".

    Thanks for your input, and happy holidays.

    Alan
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