Two On A Big Ocean The Story of the First Circumnavigation
of the Pacific Basin
in a Small Sailing Ship


      

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Re: [Nml] Calculators for Navigation


Subject: Re: [Nml] Calculators for Navigation
From: Titanium Tom (titom@XXX.XXX)
Date: Wed Mar 17 1999 - 22:38:53 EST


Dan,
Thanks for the help now I get to learn how to actually make my calculator work,
now where did I put that manual. This is also a sort of test post as I seem to
have a problem with my mail being cross posted
Talk to you again soon.
Tom

"Daniel K. Allen (Visual C++)" wrote:

> You can easily program in the sight reduction formula into an HP19BII or any
> other HP calculator with HP Solve. This is, of course, just the law of
> cosines:
>
> Spherical Trig Law of Cosines
> cos(a)*cos(b) + sin(a)*sin(b)*cos(ab) = cos(c)
>
> and then you can use it to solve both great circle distance calculations and
> sight reduction by the following use of a, b, ab, and c:
>
> For Great Circle Distance Computations:
> a = 90 - lat1, b = 90 - lat2, ab = lon2 - lon1: c*60 = distance in nmi
> b = c, c = b, recalc and ab = inital course
>
> For Celestial Nav Sight Reduction:
> a = 90 - estLat, b = 90 - decl, ab = LHA = GHA - estLong, 90-c = altitude
> b = c, c = b, recalc, and ab = azimuth (360-az if lha < 180)
>
> Dan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Titanium Tom [mailto:titom@XXX.XXX]
> Sent: Friday, March 12, 1999 7:29 PM
> To: Daniel K. Allen (Visual C++); Daniel K. Allen (Visual C++)
> Cc: 'Mike Wescott'; Dan Hogan; navigation@XXX.XXX
> Subject: Re: [Nml] Calculators for Navigation
>
> Dan,
> My calculator that I presently use is an HP19BII, Buisness Consultant II
> which has RPN also. Do you think that I will be able to use it for what I
> will
> need for our purposes here on Silicon Sea II ?
> Thanks for the help.
> T Tom.
>
> Daniel K. Allen (Visual C++) wrote:
>
> > Personally I prefer to spend my time doing lots of programming on my
> HP-48GX
> > to get sight reduction to the fewest keystrokes! The HP 48 uses very
> little
> > power and has great built-in functionality. It has a strange programming
> > language called RPL (Reverse Polish Lisp) but it is quite powerful. Sadly
> > HP is doing very little with calculators any more.
> >
> > My best nav programs are written in the C programming language and run on
> my
> > laptops, although I am about to port them to a small HP620LX Windows CE
> > machine... which is what HP is putting its efforts to now. At least these
> > machines can be programmed in C -- a big step forward -- but they do not
> > support much programming on the machine: you need to write the programs on
> a
> > desktop machine running Windows 98 or NT.
> >
> > I've begun experimenting with some nav software written as an Excel
> > spreadsheet, and it actually works quite well. These Handheld PCs that
> run
> > Windows CE (like the HP620LX and their newer Jornada) have a Pocket Excel
> in
> > ROM and one CAN program on the handheld machine in Excel simply by writing
> > formulas. (No macros or VBA yet though.)
> >
> > One of the great advantages of using Excel for numerical calculations is
> > that you can see as much of your intermediate results as you want along
> the
> > way. You can change just one variable and see how it affects the answer,
> > etc. Writing nav software using Excel is actually pretty promising!
> >
> > Dan
> > danallen@XXX.XXX
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mike Wescott [mailto:mike.wescott@XXX.XXX]
> > Sent: Friday, March 12, 1999 6:18 AM
> > To: Titanium Tom
> > Cc: Dan Hogan; navigation@XXX.XXX
> > Subject: Re: [Nml] Silicon Sea II: Show of Hands
> >
> > > What type of calculator is the best for working the calculations, should
> > it be
> > > programable?
> >
> > Personally, I prefer minimal computer help for doing the Silicon Sea
> > problems
> > (and maximal help on the open sea). I use a simple calculator and plotting
> > sheets. If I weren't too lazy to use an Ageton method (or one of it's
> > relatives,
> > I would do without the calculator.
> >
> > --
> > -Mike Wescott
> > mike.wescott@XXX.XXX
>
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