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AFTER-CONFERENCE SUMMARY:

Practical navigators, experts in navigation theory, and historians of science met at Mystic Seaport, November 3-5, 2017 for the Celestial Navigation Symposium, a conference devoted to celestial navigation, both historical and modern, and related topics. Compiled below are summaries of the presentations, pdf editions of the presentations, and some photos of the presenters giving their talks. Special thanks to Ed Popko for many excellent photos and also for his role as timer, which he executed with precision and tact. And thanks to Phil Sadler for his help and his photos from the event.

Join us for continuing discussions of celestial navigation and other methods of tradional navigation online. NavList is the premier online community for celestial navigation and one of the co-sponsors of the Navigation Sympsosium. Visit NavList here: fer3.com/arc. The NavList message boards include archives going back over twenty years, and nearly every topic in celestial navigation has been discussed at least once. For lighter discussions and an informal atmosphere, consider joining the Facebook Celestial Navigation group.

For general inquiries regarding the conference, contact Frank Reed, organizer and founder of this Navigation Symposium: frank@reednavigation.com.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3:

• 3:00-3:30pm: Registration and Introductions, Treworgy Planetarium, ground floor.
  Meet the navigators and learn about the Treworgy Planetarium and the NavList community.
  Note: photos here are general group photos from the conference, taken on Saturday and Sunday.
  
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• 3:45-4:30: Teaching Modern Celestial Navigation, Brian Koehler and Frank Reed.
  Under the planetarium dome, Treworgy Planetarium, main floor.
  
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• 4:45-5:00: An Ode to Celestial Navigation, Mark Coady.
  A dramatic reading aboard the historic whaleship Charles W. Morgan.
  
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• 5:15: Nathaniel Bowditch & the Power of Numbers, Tamara Plakins Thornton.
  A presentation on her definitive new biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, highlighting Bowditch's sometimes exaggerated significance to celestial navigation as well as his influence on the developing numeracy of business in early 19th century America. Masin Room, Thompson Building.
  
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  Buy Professor Thornton's book at amazon: Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4:

• 9:00am: Why (and When) Did the Greenwich Meridian Move?, George Kaplan, US Naval Observatory.
  The zero of longitude at Greenwich, UK lies over 100 meters east of the traditional prime meridian. Why and when did the prime meridian move?
  
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• 10:00: Trust Your Lunars, Frank Reed.
  Observations of the Moon for determining longitude at sea as found in historical logbooks and how to analyze them with modern software and apps.
  
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• 11:00: The Celestial Transformation and the Origins of GPS, Richard Easton.
  The early history of the GPS system and its connection to traditional methods of navigation. Richard Easton's father was one of the principal creators of the GPS system, and he has written a detailed book on the subject. Also visit the website for the book gpsdeclassified.com. Under resources, Richard Easton notes that he has uploaded a number of primary source documents.
  
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  Note: We didn't manage to get photos of Richard during his presentation, but I found a couple of photos of him aboard the Charles W. Morgan, as seen here.
  
  Buy Richard Easton's book at amazon: GPS Declassified

• 11:55: Five Minutes of Navigation: You Need a Paper Sextant. Frank Reed.
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• 12:00: Lunch Break
  
  

• 1:00pm: The Running Fix on the Sphere and Ellipsoid too, Robin Stuart.
  A number of attempts at generalizing the classical running fix from the plane to the globe have been hampered by flawed prescriptions for advancing Circles of Position. The problems that arise and their resolution will be demonstrated geometrically. It is shown that when the running fix on the globe is treated correctly the formulas needed are all very familiar to any navigator.
  
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  Animation of rhumbline-evolved circle of position: RunningFixBlackHole.gif

• 2:00: Mystic Seaport Tour, guides: Brian Koehler and Frank Reed.
  An opportunity to visit some of the highlights of Mystic Seaport with insights from local experts.
  
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• 3:00: Astronomical Journal-Keeping and Misconceptions in Celestial Navigation, Philip Sadler, Harvard University.
  Sadler teaches celestial navigation at Harvard and is also a leading expert on science education. He will discuss some of the preconceived notions that students bring to the subjects of astronomy and navigation and the technique of astronomical journal-keeping as a method of dispelling some of those misconceptions.
  
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• 3:50: Five Minutes of Navigation: A Japanese Translation of Bowditch. Frank Reed.
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• 4:00: Becoming a Celestial Navigator in the Marion-Bermuda Race, Bob Dugan.
  Learning and practicing celestial navigation during the race, Dugan's team won second place overall in the highly competitive sailing race to Bermuda.
  
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  Related: a short NYTimes article on Bermuda Race celestial preparation at Mystic Seaport fifty years ago: planetarium-1968.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5

• 9:00am: Celestial Navigation in the Flight Levels, Tracy Shrier.
  Experiments in aerial celestial navigation near the tropopause; a modern pilot's journey back in time.
  
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• 10:00: Direct Hybrid Navigation with the Method of Co-planar Vertices, Yves Robin-Jouan.
  An overview of a mathematical system for combining or "hybridizing" celestial observations with other navigational observations.
  
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• 10:45: Five Minutes of Navigation: The Orion North Arrow. Frank Reed.
  
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• 11:00: Current Directions in Navigation Technology, George Kaplan.
  A discussion and analysis of current US Department of Defense projects in navigation augmenting GPS with complementary navigation technologies, including automated celestial navigation.
  
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• 12:00: Lunch Break
  
  

• 1:00pm: NavList Live, panel of navigation experts.
  We take your questions! Ask anything you want on the subject of celestial navigation or related topics. Questions may be submitted by email or in-person at the conference. Each question will be allowed up to five minutes of discussion.
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• 1:55: Five Minutes of Navigation: Raise the Spanker to Spica. Frank Reed.
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• 2:00: Traditional Compass Adjusting, Robert Peterson.
  A presentation on the techniques of adjusting magnetic compasses using celestial observations and other methods, based on over thirty years experience in the trade.
  
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• 2:30: Celestial Tools and Almanac Oddities,Stan Klein.
  Development of the Celestial Tools software package has made Stan Klein an expert in the fine details of the computations of the Nautical Almanac. He'll discuss some of his unique discoveries in this presentation.
  
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• 3:00: Defeating GPS Spoofing with Rapid Celestial, Frank Reed.
  The strengths and also limits of celestial sights as a means of detecting GPS "spoofing" at sea, including a demonstration of an accurate, quick, and convenient anti-spoof app (sextant required!).
  
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• 3:45: See me on TV..., Frank Reed.
  Look for me on Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk television talk show on the National Geographic channel on December 3, 2017 in an episode featuring Hawaiian master mariner, Nainoa Thompson and discussing the basics of Polynesian navigation. I was aboard as the celestial navigation expert for the whole hour. Dava Sobel, author of "Longitude", also joined us for one segment.
  
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