Old Astro templates

[Uricanejack]

It’s a pretty old thread now.
It may help answer some of Sandy’s questions. Or the templates might be useful.
I dredged it up because it was easier than rewriting out the old templates.
I used a lined A4 or Legal sise note book with the template when using the full long hand methods including logarithms from Norries Tables.
Or a regular sise lined note book when using a calculator.

I have a shorter template some where. Or I can figure it out again. Based on the calculator method in the back of the current (2018) Nautical Almanac. I haven’t bought this years yet, I expect it’s still there.
It a bit different and more modern using Napier’s rules rather than the haversine formula. Which involves the need to decide if you will add or subtract.
It’s the same method used by the sight reduction tables on the next page at the back of the nautical almanac.
These pages were not in the almanac back in my day. So I didn’t use them myself. I did use the Napier’s rules.

I do believe Mr Burch is just using correct mathematical naming when he refers to True Latitude. Even though I haven’t read his book.

I never did use Bowditch the American Practical Navigator. ,
I have acquired a copy since I originally posted these templates. It also is available free on line. I do recommend it as possibly the best reference book available. I have not found a better one yet.
It’s a bit of a dry text book so you may find something by Cuncliff more readable.

 

[Skylark]

I never did use Bowditch the American Practical Navigator. ,
I have acquired a copy since I originally posted these templates. It also is available free on line. I do recommend it as possibly the best reference book available. I have not found a better one yet.
It’s a bit of a dry text book so you may find something by Cuncliff more readable.

NOAA/Uncle Sam are very generous to make Bowditch available as a pdf. That said. I get enormous pleasure from my hard back version. I agree with your comment above “possibly the best reference book available”. It’s not a book to pick-up and read but it is the go-to reference for navigation queries. It certainly holds pride of place in my library.

I recently read an updated account of the Essex, the Nantucket whaler sunk in the Pacific in the early 1800s. The story inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. The book says that when abandoning the ship, two copies of Bowditch were salvaged before the sinking.

 

[Frank Holden]

The company I served my time with was B & C ... the major parts of which were Clan and Union Castle.

On the ships running to South Africa and Australia Marc St Hilaire was how things were done.... on the ships running to India .. Long by Chron was the order of the day.
This is my very first sight... Long by Chron.... there are 4 in my first sight book.... from then on it was always MStH .

The third pic is a 'morning chit' as used in the 'Cape Mail'. All five of us ... 2/0, J/2/0, 3/0, 4/0 and J/4/0 had to fill one of these in and they were then sent down to the captain chappie. He would apply some mumbo jumbo and decide on the expected day's run... this was what the punters gambled on... big business in its time.

 

[Skylark]

Thanks for posting, Frank, I always enjoy reading your contributions . I note that the year was 1966. A lot has changed since then yet celestial navigation remains a very straightforward method of navigating an ocean. I'm a keen and willing amateur; here's a plotting sheet from 2020.

Using a routing chart and 9 pages of hand-drawn A3 plotting sheets I was never far from the GPS (also shown). All to MStH method.