NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Time Sight Computations
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Sep 29, 06:53 -0300
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Sep 29, 06:53 -0300
No apologies necessary. This is just living proof of that which we all experience: the high frequency of making errors in such a calculation-dense human activity as "celestial aggravation". I first heard that term used by Peter Bennett of CPS in Vancouver. Pre-computed solutions and computer programs revolutionized that aspect of CN, as long as someone periodically checks the computers. What continually amazes me is realizing that Cooke, Sumner, Sainte Hilaire and others were able to do it so well with candles and pencils in conditions such as those of 18th and 19th century wooden ships at sea, many months from home. At least they had plenty of time to patiently triple-check, unlike the 19 and 20 yr-old navigators who did it under such serious time stress as flying bombers in WWII. No surprise that hobbyists in this century, squeezing CN between domestic and real-work chores, often transpose a digit or two. Jim Thompson jim2@jimthompson.net www.jimthompson.net Outgoing mail scanned by Norton Antivirus ----------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Navigation Mailing List on Behalf Of Chuck Taylor > I agree with George that using tables of logarithmic > functions is a bit fussy, and a skill that one could > probably improve with practice. My apologies to the > group for this and any other errors that may be > lurking in my computations.
