NavList:

So we've got Byron, Gary, and Greg all making modifications to render the H.O.2102-D more useful and simpler. And let's not forget Brad Morris's excellent spreadsheets which created a virtual 2102-"E" with additional features (see the archives). Clearly there's general agreement then that the Rude Star Finder, or H.O.2102-A/B/C/D, is only barely up to the tasks intended for it.

Meanwhile, I printed out some transparency alt-azimuth scales for my common planisphere, so now I've got a navigators-style star finder of my own modified design, too. :) I can read off altitudes and azimuths to roughly +/-2 degrees even though the star finder is only four inches in diameter. Since it starts from a common plansisphere, the stars match their appearance in the sky, the constellations around the bright stars are included, and it is double-sided so I can get undistorted views and geometry towards the southern sky. Of course, if I want to make it work for various latitudes, I would have to print out transparencies for those. That's not difficult. I actually used Brad's spreadsheet to make the overlays.

While this is all fun, I would still rarely use this compared to a software solution. Pointing my phone at the sky is just quicker.

-FER

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