Book Longitude "Sextant"

MR HENRY R DANIELSON (ANWJ93A@prodigy.com)
Sat, 9 Jan 1999 21:27:08, -0500


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Both Julie and I have read Longitude and enjoyed it a great deal.

We, too, have been fascinated with the wonder of celestial
navigation. It is simply amazing to me that I can stand on the shore
of Lake Erie with a sextant, a nautical almanac, and an accurate
watch and determine my position by simply measuring the altitude of
an identified star or planet at dusk. There are several ways of
doing the job. One involves the use of a number of tables in the
almanac, the other uses the trig functions of a calculator. Either
way involves careful computation and orderly recording of numbers,
but very little math.
If you are interested in celestial navigation, I suggest you
join the United States Power Squadrons and take their JN and N
courses. They can teach you both how to navigate with a sextant and
how it all works. Their courses are fascinating and very well done.
What is more, you have to compile an accurate sight log before you
can pass the course. When you realize how reasonable navigation is,
you will have a new appreciation of another part of the great
tradition of the sea.
Should you not wish to join USPS as Julie and I did, you might
want to look for Common Sense Celestial Navigation, a book by Hewitt
Schlereth. He is a wonderful writer and has mastered the art (it is
considered an art rather than a science) of navigation. He attacks
the subject from all angles and can even tell you how to find your
position if you should... drop your sextant overboard, if your watch
stops, or if you lose your almanac, or even all three! For a taste
of his work, look at the January 1999 edition of Cruising World
Magazine. On page 60, you will find "Sight Reduction by Pocket
Calculator," a good example of Schlereth's work. I believe his book
is out of print. We found it in a second hand book store.
P-15 "Tinker" 1981 Hank and Julie