Originally Posted by
bubi352
There is absolutely no bragging rights about it. I am just interested in the subject. I did meet yesterday a current flight navigator. We sat down and he taught me a lot. You will be surprised at how accurate it can be. I flew last night a redeye and took two shots of two different stars. Celesial navigation for aviation is somewhat different from maritime although it is very similar. In maritime, the sailor takes his shots and then makes the calculations to find his position. You can't do that in a plane going 450 knots. So you precompute everything typically 20 minutes prior. You use the Air Almanac and H.O 249 to fill out a quick form. You make several corrections including even Coriolis force which can account for about 7-8 miles off course. I was 11 miles off course on a 1500 mile trip. That's less than 1%. Not bad, uh? Mind you I am still learning the entire process. The standard is less than 7 miles. The technique is so simple. There is nothing complicated about the process. It's just merely understanding the numbers, applying the correct addition or subtraction and making a good shot.
I use also the Astri Astro-Compass. With this device, you just calculate your LHA, put the declination of the celestial body and your latitude. What you find is your true heading. If you apply your variation, you get your magnetic heading. I come within 2 degrees of magnetic heading every single time. This process takes me less than 3 minutes to do.
Yes, there is no real world applications to it. It's just interesting. Call me a nerd.
That's pretty interesting, and it sounds like you've done a pretty good job. I once met someone who navigated on the old
China Clippers, (but to South America). He said they used a combination of celestial nav and a kind of bomb sight thing during the day, which was gyro stabilized. Basically, you would lock the thing on a point on the surface, then set the gyro. After a period of time you would measure the drift, use an e6b to correct the drift.. From that you plotted your course and could tell your ground speed. Using all that equipment, they were still off by many miles and would use an AM radio station as an NDB to home in.