From the sextant to GPS - - Part 1.

From the sextant to GPS -

Greetings

From the star navig finder-to -star gazing today....  a batch mate expressed wryly-
"Star identification today is mostly of glam movie or sports stars!! 
Preamble: Some time back I had  "a chance" reading in a blog on Polaris that gave me a recall of a time gone by..or is it Synchoronicity--a sub researched by Dr.Carl Jung ---of time,  events in space coinciding across. Just that  week  the Company of Master Mariners, Chennai Chp,.India met and had a discussion on the "Future Ship 2025, with Electronics taking over in Navig & Communication; in fact in almost all tasks. I had been asked to share my own thoughts in the post lecture demo was as an "Older Mariner" from the past  !!

Gen Y Mariners raised only on GPS really  see us as Ancient.. really !

RECALL --

1) It all started in Dufferin Jr form class in 1963 and then later  practice with a star identifier chart; tests followed in Senior form.Later followed up with Sights for the sun am/noon - meridian- the pm twilight star fix with a sextant  at Sea for so many years.. 

2) In the 1960s, esp  on West Coast US port calls- we used to have USCG Sea Charts titled Pacific Pilot etc issued to ships at U.S.Ports. Apart from weather and current info the reverse of the chart  had a fund of interesting info. One such was the WW2 experience of merchant navy Navigators taking sextant sights after geting eyes adjusted with a special reddish tint goggles to have a delayed time of Twiilight ;Also practice with adjusting Eyes to a horizon to fix position by star fixes.Twilight in many places is short and so this was a good idea- In any case better that a basic Dead Reckoned Position. Possibly more imp with submarine attacks and the need to stay in posn and on course.

3) In 1971/72,  I  was introduced to the Canadian Air-Navigation sight Reduction tables-purchased a book  in Vancouver BC Canada itself- & contd with this in ... till I signed off-

Could do a star sight (posn.fix in 5-8 mts with things kept ready) really good --Starfixes --(no cocked hats -on clear days)..Got good posns... rechecked it with Radar etc.

NOTE" In fact got a pocket Calculator only in 1974 in Japan----till then it was just the Burtons Navig tables & logarithms.

4) Even had practiced sextant sights on bright full moon nights in Pacific on Australia Japan route . This as explained earlier was nicely documented in the USCG Pilot Info Charts of Pacific as it was always done in the WW2 years. To  my surprise found it reasonably  accurate if a clear horizon was obtained.

Quite interesting and most helpful to spend time on lonely Pacific crossings then. 
Time flies and I really miss those days- some say it is silly to dwell on past. -Sextant sights and posn fix was an art and a science and doing it gave a sense of  accomplishment.

Gave immense  job satisfaction to us Seafarers.
Rgds

TR