Next message: Frank Reed: "Re: Lunars Workshop"
Don Treworgy and I are tentatively planning a "Celestial Navigation
Celebration" for the weekend of June 16-18, 2006 to be held at Mystic Seaport in
Mystic, Connecticut USA. This would essentially be a "fan convention" for
celestial navigation enthusiasts and professionals with behind the scenes tours of
the Seaport's navigational instrument collection, its library of historical
documents, and talks and seminars (yes, including something on lunars). We'll
also make the best of opportunities, weather permittin, to practice sights and
compare instruments and techniques. While beginners would certainly be
welcome, this "weekend of workshops" would be aimed primarily at those with some
celestial navigation experience. As celestial fades rapidly into the pages of
history, I see it as a chance to get a little press coverage, too, and perhap
remind people of the lasting impact of celestial navigation and its
continuing relevance.
Incidentally, Don Treworgy is the Director of the Seaport Planetarium. He
has been working there since it opened back in 1960, and he has been teaching
celestial navigation for almost forty years. Imagine how perfect it must have
been to be teaching celestial navigation and astronomy in a planetarium just
two years after the release of the best Bowditch ever, two years after the
perfection and unification of the modern Nautical Almanac, and three years
after the launch of Sputnik... We'll get him to do at least one talk, probably on
the techniques of teaching navigation with the benefit of a planetarium. Don
has deep roots in Maine. His last name is originally Cornish (Tre- for farm,
-Worgy for George, so Treworgy=George's Farm), and his family pronounces it
like "Truer Gee".
By the way, I know some of you were talking about the relative merits of
Ebbco vs Davis sextants. If you can wait long enough, you can try an Ebbco. The
Seaport Planetarium has a bunch.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
