Time to self learn SEXTANT

[STATUE]

So we all have plenty of time.
Futures: COVID-19 from G5 masts ! - Hauwei being pulled by the Chinese - GPS switched off by Trump !
Learn to use a Sextant, well the Royal Navy are. Should we ?
But if, like me, you don't have a maths brain, its torture and disheartening.
BUT search for 'Andrew Evans 'Foolish Muse' and he will take you through 'Step-by-step Sextants Users Guide'.
He has boiled it down, not to simplicity, but useability.
No electrics, no GPS etc.

... and once you come out the other side YOU CAN DO IT !

WILL YOU EVER USE IT IN ANGER, NO OF COURSE NOT, BUT JUST THINK, YOU CAN DO IT !

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

How can a new data protocol spread a virus? ( Asking for a friend who's a scientifically illiterate conspiracy theorist).

 

[Foolish Muse]

Wow, thanks for mentioning my Sextant User's Guide. With everybody stuck at home, this is actually the second time today I've seen someone mention it. You can find it at Backbearing.com Have fun!

 

[[163233]]

It occurs to me that there are alternative more practical uses for the sextant that generally get skipped over. Precise angles between objects should give a very good fix, distances off charted objects, as well as, of course, in hand to hand combat.

Link to the subject:-
http://iodlabs.ucsd.edu/mrk/Sailing/Sextant_Users_GuideV4.pdf

 

[johnalison]

My Ebbco sextant is sitting around somewhere. I did a sun sight once and managed to work out a position line in the right hemisphere, which was a great achievement. My understanding of navigation was greatly improved by reading Hiscock's 'Voyaging under sail', which has a section on navigation. His explanation, which, if I remember correctly, had the various points projected onto the heavens instead of the Earth, made sense to me much better than others that I have seen.

 

[Yellow Ballad]

My lockdown/furlough keeping sane (?) is getting my head round Astro.

Firstly this is the most basic of basic things that sparked the interest

https://twitter.com/x/status/1156995511460618240

This guy is great at explaining things, he can talk! The first video is over 2 1/2 hours and the second is over 7 1/2! But he does it in a very simple way and takes his time which lets it sink in. I really recommend investing the time and watching it.

This is Part 1, I'm sure you can find part 2 if you get through it!

I have to admit I prefer a visual way of learning hence I prefer courses in person (been shown/told) rather that online (reading it and trying to work it out what's trying to be said) but now I have got a better idea of it from the youtube tutorial I'm sure to grasp Foolish Muse's book, thanks.

My only problem is my Astra iiib is on the boat in Wales which is still in lockdown.

 

[[163233]]

Hmmm... I've been saying gimbals wrong all these years...

 

[laika]

It occurs to me that there are alternative more practical uses [...] as well as, of course, in hand to hand combat.

I've been arguing for years that a decent plastic sextant like a Davis mk 15 is perfectly good for most practical purposes but I see now one advantage of a quality metal one I had not previously considered.

 

[capnsensible]

When you get really good at it you can have an image of one tattooed on your right upper arm.

 

[neil_s]

I'd like that Hezzanith.

 

[Skylark]

This guy is great at explaining things,

I only listened to the opening but he made me smile with a couple of his comments.

He blamed the RN for making celestial navigation seem more difficult than it real is. This was to prevent press-ganged men from mutineering for fear of not being able to navigate ?

Secondly, that it’s all very straightforward once the student has grasped the concept. Those that learn how to complete a Template to reduce the sight never really “get it”

I have to admit I prefer a visual way of learning hence I prefer courses in person (been shown/told) rather that online (reading it and trying to work it out what's trying to be said)

?

It really isn’t difficult, assuming a basic competence in adding and subtracting numbers, but it helps to have it explained. Using Sight Reduction Tables is very similar to using Log Tables that many of us were taught at school. Face to face beats on-line learning in this regard and a good instructor will find a way to explain in terms that the student understands.

 

[misterhino]

So we all have plenty of time.
Futures: COVID-19 from G5 masts ! - Hauwei being pulled by the Chinese - GPS switched off by Trump !
Learn to use a Sextant, well the Royal Navy are. Should we ?
But if, like me, you don't have a maths brain, its torture and disheartening.
BUT search for 'Andrew Evans 'Foolish Muse' and he will take you through 'Step-by-step Sextants Users Guide'.
He has boiled it down, not to simplicity, but useability.
No electrics, no GPS etc.

... and once you come out the other side YOU CAN DO IT !

WILL YOU EVER USE IT IN ANGER, NO OF COURSE NOT, BUT JUST THINK, YOU CAN DO IT !

RN no longer teach astro even to navigating officers,

 

[STATUE]

Misterhino - Oh yes they do !