Next message: Ron Roizen: "Columbus and all that..."
Stacy,
Thanks for going to the horse's mouth on this. At least the ships'
Navigators are still learning how from you!
Fred
On Thursday, Sep 4, 2003, at 10:08 US/Eastern, Stacy Hanna wrote:
>
>
> Fred Hebard wrote
>
>
>
> "Dr. Ifland repeats the statement that the U.S.NavalAcademy has
>
> discontinued its required course in celestial navigation. Apparently,
>
> the course, which had been taught since the Academy was founded in
>
> 1845, has been replaced with a modern equivalent, as people continue to
>
> maintainon this list that midshipmen are still instructed in celestial
>
> navigation. But apparently they are not instructed as thoroughly or to
>
> such length. At last these conflicting claims about the Academy
>
> abandoning instruction in celestial navigation appear to be clarified."
>
> I checked into it to find out exactly what they are teaching at the
> academy now and this is what I found. Third year Midshipmen get a 1
> hour class in Celestial Theory, 1 hour on computing Sunrise/Sunset by
> stripform, 1 hour for latitude by LAN, latitude and gyro error by
> Polaris by stripform. They are then tested on doing a full days work
> in navigation using a computer program instead of stripforms. Having
> worked with these midshipmen during their summer cruises and then
> teaching Celestial Navigation to officers who are reporting to ships
> to be Navigators, I can confidently state that Midshipmen are not
> learning Celestial Navigation at the academy.
