I started digging around for a simpler way to deal with navigation sans batteries. I'm a little tired of apps, phones, computers, and/or global positioning systems. There are alternatives. The problem is they require thinking, some simple math, and training. Some require complex math, expensive, sensitive, equipment, and training. The common theme here is training.
If we start at the beginning, it makes sense that our ancestors walked out of the cave, got lost while hunting and didn't come back for a good long time because they couldn't figure out where the cave went. After that traumatic experience, they took a look around and came up with the basics of navigation. There are probably just a handful of basics. Distance, direction, and landmarks seem like a good starting point. I've lost my cave several times and I have the tools of the modern age.
Near the top of the Amazing Navigational Tool Pyramid, we have ye good olde sextant. Sextants are pretty cool but can be dangerous. In the aftermath of the recent eclipse, several folks were hospitalized with eye problems after doing things like looking at the sun, using binoculars to look at the sun, putting sunscreen on their eyes and looking at the sun, etc. In addition, several expensive pieces of camera gear suffered at the hands of their apparently wealthy owners because they were pointed at the sun. The sextant requires looking at the sun. Although they come with mystifying directions and safety shades to help newbs stay safe, in the hands of a novice, the sextant can be comedy gold. There are lots of knobs to adjust, mirrors to tweak, and it turns out not to be intuitive.
Slightly lower on the Amazing Navigational Tool Pyramid are the map and compass. These are generally available and can be found in the hands of children and adults. These are also standard issues tools for orienteering races and military folks. I remember toting these around at Boy Scout events and feeling pretty cool but not knowing much about what I was doing with them.
Arguably, the most amazing navigation tool belongs at the top of the Amazing Navigational Tool Pyramid, in terms of necessity, and the bottom of the Amazing Navigational Tool Pyramid, in terms of ubiquity, is the wrist watch. See the book Longitude by Dava Sobel.
Searching the web, I've found a few (new to me) tools to explore. The Star Finder 2102-D is intersting. It appears to help put the navigation stars in relation to the compass points horizontally, and another scale of degrees from horizon to vertical (straight overhead). It still takes some math and some reference material like a nautical almanac. This tool can be found on amazon.com and has some non-newb instructions. I found another similar tool that makes celestial navigation even more within the reach of the effort-phobic. A former Navy man, Byron Franklin, had some genius ideas for simplifying the angular math with some basic assumptions, and making the remaining time math pretty simple. For an explanation of Franklin's 2 Minute Star Finder, see his videos by finding navtec333 on YouTube. Another cool idea is the Easy Star Finder explained on the easystarfinder.blogspot.com blog by JohnFo.
These new tools might be helpful for basic celestial navigation familiarity. I'm sure nothing replaces the accuracy and reliability of having the right tools and knowing the math. But, it feels good to have a place to begin instead of just feeling so overwhelmed with the truth that we have so much technology but are more stupid than ever. We have brains. We just forget to use them for anything more complex than buying our next phone.
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