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I am still under the median age here boys so eat your geriatric hearts 
out!!!!

I first learned astro navigation in 1983 out of sheer necessity as it was, 
at the time, the only means for position fixing. GPS was probably still in 
the labs back then. After a time, it grew from a practical skill to a 
passion and I have never looked back. Would I want to learn it today, if I 
had not done so 30 years ago?  Most assuredly, but that is in my nature.

Frank wrote:

Any thoughts? What brings young people to old subjects?? Relevance? 
Entertainment? Challenge? Resume-building? It's easy to grumble about "these 
kids today" but it's no explanation. That applies in any generation.

Eno responds.

Based on my own observations of today's "youth" and having supervised dozens 
of 20-somethings over my career, I suggest that young folks today have 
become accustomed to instant gratification. Need an answer to a 
science-oriented question?  Google it.  Need information relating to Roman 
history?  Google it.  Need to know your exact position on the face of the 
earth? Use your cell phone or GPS.

In today's technologically-dependent world, there is no longer a need for 
such arcane pursuits as referencing textbooks to find answers to questions 
or learning how to use a sextant (or map for that matter) to locate your 
position on earth. There are any number of whiz-boxes out there than can 
fulfill anyone's needs from music, to navigation to meeting women (or men).

My late friend Bruce Bauer put it more eloquently than I could ever in the 
preface to the Second Edition to The Sextant Handbook:
---------------
Sextant sales in the United States have declined since the First Edition 
appeared in 1986, and the national debt has increased enor­mously. While 
there is no apparent connection, it may be that the same sort of mental 
attitude is behind both trends-the lust for the easy answer and the quick 
fix. Why strain to balance the budget when more money can always be borrowed 
without difficulty or disapprobation-or mess about with an old-fashioned 
sextant and finical calculations when sleek electronic devices can spit out 
a po­sition almost instantly without any tiresome figuring? Answers to both 
questions are evident to thoughtful people: In the end some­one must pay for 
everything, and everything automatic sooner or later fails automatically, 
usually during or immediately before a crisis.
While electronic navigation has grown too comprehensive and convenient to be 
shunned completely by any but the most fanatical traditionalist, it 
continues to be vulnerable enough that it would be folly to abandon the 
practice of taking sights routinely. Merchant ship officers are required to 
do so. Off the Atlantic coast recently our radar, loran, and single sideband 
radio all were smoked in one brilliant instant by a lightning stroke merely 
near our vessel-not even a hit.

We who own and cherish sextants do not really care a nano­quark whether 
sales are up or down. One does not trade them in for new models, nor do they 
wear out from normal use. The longer you own one the better you like it and 
the more desirable it seems. Calculator navigation programs have eliminated 
the mathematical drudgery of tricky multiple interpolation in a maze of 
figures in tables. A sound sextant, and the ability to use it routinely, 
without dramatics, is like a balanced budget and money in the bank. It is a 
source of considerable security and satisfaction.

 --Bruce Bauer
------------

As if to prove my own point, I did not transcribe the above preface. I 
scanned the book using OCR software then cut and paste. Like I said, instant 
gratification.

Two bits' worth from a soon to be (but not yet!!!) NavList Grey.

Robert



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Frank Reed
To: enoid@northwestel.net
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 3:51 PM
Subject: [NavList] The demographics of astronomy and navigation





There's a lot of "grey" in NavList. As I noted a few months back, our median 
age is somewhere around 60.
At the little presentation I gave on lunars twelve days ago at a very fine 
old observatory in central Rhode Island, a NavList member was present and 
before the presentation, he looked across the crowd and noted "looks like a 
NavList demographic, doesn't it?" We laughed. There were more women present 
than in the community of celestial navigation enthusiasts, but there was 
clearly a lot of "grey" in that room (among both genders). Out of about 35 
total in attendance, there were two people under 25 (one definitely "in tow" 
and not there from his own interest). Maybe five were from 26 to 45. The 
rest were in the "grey" category. Where are all the young people? There's an 
article on this topic on the Sky & Telescope web site here:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Wanted-More-Young-Stargazers-218774471.html
It makes some good points. And do read the comments after the article. I 
especially enjoyed the point made by Tony Flanders about clubs generally.
Any thoughts? What brings young people to old subjects?? Relevance? 
Entertainment? Challenge? Resume-building? It's easy to grumble about "these 
kids today" but it's no explanation. That applies in any generation.
-FER
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