The Bowditch (Celestial Navigation thread--cont)

[Itchy]

Without a direct and enter button, not going to sell a lot.

Seriously, how does the compressibility of water affect this?

 

[beasly]

Hmm, I'm reading: The Most Powerful Idea in the World

Which is all about the revolution due to the steam engine. I think figuring out Celestial Navigation might be my next great read.

Trying to get a job flying UAS. You never know when being able to navigate by the stars will come in handy over the ocean.

Got it on my Amazon Wish List.

Thank you! looks fascinating.

 

[Acadia]

Hi Acadia,

Thank you, but first things first. Like Hienlien's rabbit recipe--"first, catch a rabbit"

I woke up at 3:30 EST this A.M and took the Bee-Line to Cocoa beach with my Sky Maps For Beginners with the intent of identifying 1 thing on the chart.


FAIL!

Galaxy 1 Beasly 0

Think first-solo pilot hopelessly lost.

Just remember that for most celestial, you only need to learn the bodies that are commonly visible around dawn and dusk (aside from sun and moon shots). You can't take good sightings after full dark because you cant really see the horizon well enough in most conditions. Obviously it is best to have a really good command the constellations etc, but if it helps, start with the brightest objects that show when there still a little bit of light.

 

[ppragman]

If you really want to give your mind a thorough scrubbing, read through the history of trigonometry. Start with Apollonius of Perga's "Conic Sections" (and, uhm, get a guide), which was pretty much the genesis of meaningfully "post-arithmetic" math. The amount of brainpower that went in to astronomy up to the Renaissance is staggering and humbling. Strike that. HUMILIATING.

I second that.

There's a book out there that is the complete and utter history of math. From notching tallies to string theory, and its really really good. It'll make you feel like a blithering idiot (or at least it made me feel that way). The outside the box thinking that went into some of this stuff was uncanny.

 

[Boris Badenov]

I second that.

There's a book out there that is the complete and utter history of math. From notching tallies to string theory, and its really really good. It'll make you feel like a blithering idiot (or at least it made me feel that way). The outside the box thinking that went into some of this stuff was uncanny.

Since we're hijacking, it's not really a "history of math" per se, but David Foster Wallace's "Everything and More (a brief history of infinity)" is the hands down the best math history book I've ever read. In order to fully grasp it, you'll need some calculus, but even without it's a good read (It's structured in such a way that you can get by without understanding some of the equations). Starts with ancient math (Xeno's Paradox, Divine Brotherhood of Pythagoras), does some treatment of Ptolemy, Copernicus, etc, hits the Cartesian stuff, and then launches in to the most lucid explanation I've ever read of transfinites and the like. It's no "Idiot's Guide", but if you're deeply interested in the history of math, I can't recommend it enough.

Back to your scheduled (also very interesting) programming.

 

[z987k]

Fwiw, I read that "following contrails" is a good strategy as well.

That said, say your are in a small twin, over the ocean at night.


You have no internal lights (should not happen given proper prep--spare batteries, redundant light sources--but this time it fails).


You have control of the A.C but have lost positional awareness.

Which way?

:dunno:


Gonna get that fixed.

Hey atc, gimme vectors(tell me left/right). :laff:
We'll ignore the black on black on black problem.