THE METHOD OF ASSUMED ALTITUDES: A NEW APPROACH TO AN OLD ART

T. D. Davies

Peer Reviewed

Abstract: It may come as a surprise to some that the art of celestial navigation still survives, in a world of computers, hyperbolic electronics systems and pendulums. Its importance has waned markedly and one can contemplate only a dwindling future for the art. Nonetheless there is something fundamental and elegant about it-and there are still times and places where its non-cumulating-error positions are the sine-qua-non that they once were. To the degree that true operational navigators still exist (and they do), interest in the art will still be found. In the course of centuries of use of celestial navigation human ingenuity has developed a proliferation of methods, tables and devices. An excellent compendium of these is to be found in the American Practical Navigator-extending for 52 pages. The diversity and ramifications of these are staggering-a tribute to the creativity and ingenuity of those who have practiced or worked in the art.
Published in: NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 25, Number 3
Pages: 349 - 354
Cite this article: Davies, T. D., "THE METHOD OF ASSUMED ALTITUDES: A NEW APPROACH TO AN OLD ART", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 25, No. 3, Fall 1978, pp. 349-354.
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