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Subject: Re: Nautical Almanac
From: Robert Eno (enoid@XXX.XXX)
Date: Mon Jun 24 2002 - 08:20:00 EDT
>Herbert Prinz wrote:
---clipped----
...You are luckier than some English sailors. While you can still use the
>correction tables of last year's almanac, some of this year's TSO copies
are >lacking daily pages for May and June...I thought I mention this as
food for thought for those amongst us who use celestial as backup for GPS.
Sometimes it works the other way round!....
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Hello Mr. Prinz,
You have brought up a very good point re: the missing pages of the
almanac. How ironic that in this case, the astro-navigator would have to
resort to GPS as the backup!
There is another electronic back up which is quite reliable and sturdy:
the "Celesticomp" navigation calculator. I bought one from Celestaire
several years ago and have never regretted the purchase. Although I still
diligently practice reducing sights the old way (and that includes the use
of trig and log tables), the Celesticomp is really useful for those times
when you are taking dozens of sights for practice, and want quick answers.
Astro-navigation's answer to instant gratification.
On a related issue, which may be of interest to the list, it is a little
known fact that when Roald Amundsen embarked on his historic journey to
the South Pole in 1911-1912, he attended to every little detail (in
characteristic Amundsen fashion), except for one thing: he forgot to bring
along the 1912 edition of the Nautical Almanac (ref. Roland Huntford:
Amundsen and Scott). Because of this, he was compelled to reach the South
Pole (and fix his position there with absolute certainty) before the close
of 1911. As it turns out, he did, on December 17. Talk about cutting it
close eh?
regards,
Robert
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