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From: Trevor J. Kenchington (no email)
Date: Fri Oct 15 2004 - 07:09:07 EDT
Carl Herzog wrote:
> As the editor of Reed's Nautical Almanacs for North America and the
> Caribbean, I was forced this year to make the decision to stop publishing
> celestial data. In 2000, we eliminated the tables from our books, but
> continued to offer them as a free separate volume to any Reed's reader who
> asked for one. Of the tens of thousands of books we sell from Alaska to
> Trinidad to Nova Scotia, our request for ephemerides slipped to about 150
> this year. How many of those folks were actually using them is a figure I
> could only guess at.
That is very sad news. If only 150 of us were asking for the supplement,
it cannot be economic to produce it and the end of the publication is
inevitable. Still, it was the only option I know of that provided a
complete and self-contained set of ephemeris and sight-reduction tables
that could be slipped into a reasonably-sized pocket. I could (and have)
taken plastic sextant and Reeds ephemeris in airline checked baggage
when flying to a sailing vacation and then entertained myself with a
celestial fix. That is going to be much more awkward to do after this year.
Carl also wrote:
> I expect that the practice of celestial navigation at sea will increasingly
> be constrained to sail training vessels. Like learning square-rig
> seamanship, celestial's math requirements and the discipline of the day's
> work will continue to offer young people valuable lessons that go beyond
> practical results.
I would like to think that that was true but I have made three trips on
sail-training vessels, including one on "Kruzenshtern" with her full
complement of cadets in training for professional careers at sea, and I
have never seen a sextant in use on any of them.
I fear that, in the modern world, much of the tradition of the sea will
only be kept alive by amateurs for their own amusement.
Trevor Kenchington
--
Trevor J. Kenchington PhD
Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250
R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251
Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555
Science Serving the Fisheries
http://home.istar.ca/~gadus
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