Looks like this thread is picking up some interest again.
castorp345 - you can find all of the python documentation including a tutorial at
docs.python.org. Also, look at
Dive Into Python, another excellent learning source. Don't let the title "for experienced programmers" scare you away as it has detailed explanations about python programming. also found this while looking around -
Pyephem - With this you could make an almanac.
Mav87th - I looked at the game sextant before coming up with this method. The game sextant only reads to the degree, which is 60nm in distance (approx 1 deg. latitude). if someone could come up with a vernier or dial for reading to the minute of degree this might turn into a useful instrument depending on the accuracy of the game sky.
Don - I continue to be impressed with your posts. Reading about celnav and muddling through sight reductions gave me some basic knowledge of the subject, but seeing your plots really helps my understanding of the whole picture. You show how the plots fit with dead reckoning and coastal nav techniques. A few posts back you showed a pic of your TSD calculator, I use my old flight calculator as it works the same way.
On my
SH4 nav page is a link to an Excel spreadsheet I put together. It has most of the intermediate tables, several worksheets you can print out, and links to online almanacs. The worksheets are set up to print out for manual sight reduction (no formulas). After working through the tables for sight reduction I am beginning to see how you would find using the formulas easier.
Regards,
Mike