for navigators and other curious types

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Grizz
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for navigators and other curious types

Post by Grizz »

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunearth.html

this page opens with the exact geo referenced location of sun, which navigators refer to as "local apparent noon". a sextant observation of the lower edge of the sun yields the exact latitude of the observer, at the time. it also makes it possible to set the 1$ chronometer* to noon. [Slocum, SAATW]

the table of the subsolar point down the page has some interesting information. home-schoolers can profit from some of the finer points, such as the location of the subsolar point appears to travel at 953.8 miles/hour.

humbling to me to see the time-keeping aspects of the sun--dial. a stick and a shadow.

OK, I know, I'm easily Amused,

P.S. https://www.space.com/supermoon-season- ... -full-moon
samsi
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Re: for navigators and other curious types

Post by samsi »

I'm easily amused too, thanks for the link. Guy Murchie covers a lot of the history of navigation in Song of the Sky, interesting stuff like how the first calculations of the circumference of the earth were worked out nearly 1000 years ago, or how Columbus and other navigators of his time could only plot their position somewhere on a line of longitude, as no one had figured out the latitude part yet. Now we won't venture 2 miles into the woods without GPS...progress!
yooper2
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Re: for navigators and other curious types

Post by yooper2 »

Very cool site. My grandad taught me how to do a basic noonsight in middle school and its something I've kept on since. It's a very reassuring skill to have when you're at sea and I really find it fun. I currently have 2 sextants, an old Leupold&Stevens that supposedly came off a PT boat and a modern Astra III.

I absolutely devoured "Sailing Alone Around the World" as kid along with the "Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss" and had the Robin Lee Graham book about memorized. There is a recent biography of Slocum called "A Man for all Oceans" that is very good.

Eric
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Grizz
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Re: for navigators and other curious types

Post by Grizz »

Thanks for the input guys. Eric, I am reading The Hard Way Around by Geoffrey Wolff and recommend it. Lots of stuff about Slocum's family and voyages, mostly derived from Victor's writings and other biographers. There was a quasi-replica of Liberdad built and sailed, but not much info, and quite different from the original one.

I gave my daughter my perfect BuShips sextant, and have two plastic ones that are plenty good enough for my purposes. Daughter is an accomplished mariner, about to leave towing a barge to Alaska. But she still doesn't know anything about celestial! I consider the bronze sextant too valuable to risk taking to sea! The moon also supplies time information so dodging the coral reefs should be routine.

Shackleton's captain and navigator is just about beyond comparison,
In 1916, Frank A Worsley famously navigated the 22½ foot (6.9 m) James Caird from Elephant
Island to South Georgia Island on a mission to seek rescue for the other 22 men of the Shackleton
Expedition. The 800 nautical mile (1,500 km) journey remains one of history’s most remarkable
feats of seamanship in a small boa
https://www.canterburymuseum.com/assets ... dition.pdf

good reading, and good sailing,
grizz
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OldWin
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Re: for navigators and other curious types

Post by OldWin »

My navigation skills consist of finding my way around the thick woods up here. Big water freaks me out.
My son can navigate on land and sea, but when he comes home from Alaska to hunt with us, he says being away for almost 15 years makes thick woods give him the Willie's.

I have always been fascinated by the navigation skills of those incredible men of the past. The story of Mr. Worsley is just amazing. I can't even imagine that kind of skill.
"Oh bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round.
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