NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Tom Sult
Date: 2013 Aug 12, 16:03 -0500
Tom Sult
Last evening I stepped outside to watch an Iridium flare. Within five minutes I saw five other satellites (unexpected). Using a pair of binoculars I recorded the positions of two of them relative to moderately bright stars and also the time to the nearest few seconds. Back at my computer, comparing against predicted satellite positions, I had no problem fixing my position within about five nautical miles. I've discussed this before at length, but I just wanted to remind folks that you CAN get a satellite position fix visually with only minimal equipment (binoculars and a basic star chart). The downside is that it depends on a "DR" position (within a degree or two) and it requires Internet access at least within the past ten days or so in order to get good satellite orbital elements. This method requires some practice, but it's much simpler than traditional celestial navigation.
-FER
----------------------------------------------------------------
NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList
Members may optionally receive posts by email.
To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
----------------------------------------------------------------