KAM
Well-Known Member
Has anyone found an app that will record an event time. Plenty of stopwatch and timer apps out there. I just want to press a button to record the time.
Stop clock app for astro nav
- Thread starter KAM
- Start date
[70521]
Well-Known Member
If you have crew, you say "mark" and they write the time down.
If single handed you look at your timepiece and enter the figure into your brain before writing it down OR count bananas until you find your timepiece and scribble the time minus the number of bananas. Using sheep does not work as they are shorter than the standard banana unit of time and you risk falling asleep.
If single handed you look at your timepiece and enter the figure into your brain before writing it down OR count bananas until you find your timepiece and scribble the time minus the number of bananas. Using sheep does not work as they are shorter than the standard banana unit of time and you risk falling asleep.
gregcope
Well-Known Member
Can you be more precise using mice?
KAM
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the tips ill remember that at sea but it's much more hazardous single handed in the back garden at night with an artificial horizon of old engine oil balanced on a slippery decking whilst being attacked by the neighbours cat. Just realised a phone screenshot does the job nicely and will record a series of sights.
GHA
Well-Known Member
Might be on interesting
So obvious, though I have played with a spreadsheet before and recorded sights in there with 4 second gap between sight and time, then a little botched together bit of python to create a graph from the sights to get a good handle on accuracy.
Of course! Take a pic
So obvious, though I have played with a spreadsheet before and recorded sights in there with 4 second gap between sight and time, then a little botched together bit of python to create a graph from the sights to get a good handle on accuracy.
Buck Turgidson
Well-Known Member
Start your stopwatch when you take the sight.
keep it running until you are ready to work out the time.
Write down the time to the next minute and stop the stopwatch on the turn of the next minute.
subtract stopwatch value from time noted.
or just count bananas in your head.
keep it running until you are ready to work out the time.
Write down the time to the next minute and stop the stopwatch on the turn of the next minute.
subtract stopwatch value from time noted.
or just count bananas in your head.
KAM
Well-Known Member
Spreadsheets a good idea. I had a sight which wouldnt work after a lot of checking I put them on a graph it was a perfect straight line except for one point. Looks like I'd written the time down wrongly hence the post. Nice to do it without electronics though.
Buck Turgidson
Well-Known Member
graphing your sights and eliminating the bad ones is part of the RYA method I learned. Just by hand rather than electronically.
GHA
Well-Known Member
If you like a bit of tech then electronically is actually much faster and more accurate, plus easy to save for future reference. Most people aren't that way inclined though
Elessar
Well-Known Member
The button next to the timer app will tell you where you are...........
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
No! see Buck's post above.
The earth is banana shaped, so that is why you cannot use mice.
If you did, you would get dunked for being a witch
GHA
Well-Known Member
Indeed, though imho some little app to make it easy to plot lots of sights quickly would have little to do with finding a position, but could be very handy to take lots and lots and lots of sights so you get used to handling the sextant and flagging up any errors you are making. The calc side can be practised separately,no need to do the whole process at once.
Skylark
Well-Known Member
If you like a bit of tech then electronically is actually much faster and more accurate, plus easy to save for future reference. Most people aren't that way inclined though
I much prefer to be "electronically challenged" when on a boat
This is my version of a spreadsheet. One other advantage is that I don't have to search a hard disc to find it.......I just turn back a few pages of my navigation logbook (written on parchment with quill, of course)
To the OP, counting the time from confirming your sight to looking at the chronometer, then subtracting those seconds, really isn't a difficult skill to learn. Mariners managed successfully long before help from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs came along.
I also derive great personal satisfaction from, say, taking half a dozen sun sights, selecting one and reducing it to a Position Line. On a long distance voyage, there's not a lot of point in saving time by using electrickery. Surely its better to keep the grey matter stimulated.
GHA
Well-Known Member
Think you're another completley missing the point, a bit of digital if you're that way inclined can be really handy practicing to get used to the sextant, bang of lots and lots of sights and get confident handling the sextant, nothing whatsoever to do with reducing a sight or finding a position on the boat. That can all come seperately when banging off a load of sights is much more instictive and you have confidence having had lots of practise that they'll be pretty good.I much prefer to be "electronically challenged" when on a boat
This is my version of a spreadsheet. One other advantage is that I don't have to search a hard disc to find it.......I just turn back a few pages of my navigation logbook (written on parchment with quill, of course)
To the OP, counting the time from confirming your sight to looking at the chronometer, then subtracting those seconds, really isn't a difficult skill to learn. Mariners managed successfully long before help from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs came along.
I also derive great personal satisfaction from, say, taking half a dozen sun sights, selecting one and reducing it to a Position Line. On a long distance voyage, there's not a lot of point in saving time by using electrickery. Surely its better to keep the grey matter stimulated.
Why do people want to leap in and do everything at once with astro, it's like jumping on a mountain bike down a big hill straight away instead of learning to basics with some strabilisers.
Skylark
Well-Known Member
I think that you and I have had this discussion before ?
I’m all for progressive learning, breaking the skill into smaller, manageable steps.
My experience is that students of celestial navigation find the skill of taking the sight quite straightforward,
So, let’s say that we have both taken 5 sights over about 20 minutes. Now, I’ve absolutely no idea how to create “a little botched together bit of python” ?
Instead, I’m going to draw a very simple XY graph of time and Hs in a note book. After plotting my 5 sights I’m going to put a 12” ruler through the points until I find by eye a “best fit line”. It doesn’t really even have to be that accurate. Once I’ve drawn the best fit line I’m going to select any one of the points near to the line and use it in the sight reduction process. I could, like you are suggesting, complete the process a month later, if I wanted to.
With respect, your computer generated graph of “joining the points” gives a confusing visual reference.
If you wrote another program for “best fit” for the 5 sights, I suspect that the line would not be correct. The computer would consider all plots, even those that are plainly wrong. By eye, laying a 12” rule over the sights it would be very obvious that one (or more) was wrong, and so should be ignored. ?
I’m all for progressive learning, breaking the skill into smaller, manageable steps.
My experience is that students of celestial navigation find the skill of taking the sight quite straightforward,
So, let’s say that we have both taken 5 sights over about 20 minutes. Now, I’ve absolutely no idea how to create “a little botched together bit of python” ?
Instead, I’m going to draw a very simple XY graph of time and Hs in a note book. After plotting my 5 sights I’m going to put a 12” ruler through the points until I find by eye a “best fit line”. It doesn’t really even have to be that accurate. Once I’ve drawn the best fit line I’m going to select any one of the points near to the line and use it in the sight reduction process. I could, like you are suggesting, complete the process a month later, if I wanted to.
With respect, your computer generated graph of “joining the points” gives a confusing visual reference.
If you wrote another program for “best fit” for the 5 sights, I suspect that the line would not be correct. The computer would consider all plots, even those that are plainly wrong. By eye, laying a 12” rule over the sights it would be very obvious that one (or more) was wrong, and so should be ignored. ?
