Celestial Navigation in SH4

[I'm goin' down]

I am go to require some serious sit down time with this program. I am lacking is fundamentals, which might be math related, but I am not sure yet.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

I am go to require some serious sit down time with this program. I am lacking is fundamentals, which might be math related, but I am not sure yet.

Nahh, looks worse than it is. Just a matter of adding and subtracting and looking into tables if you want to do it the hard way. Use the online almanac if you like to keep it simple:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/celnavtable.php

[CNA0]

At the moment Stellarium 9.1 seems to be easier to use. When I figure out how to get the location into the newest Stellarium I'll upload a program for that, (latitude and longitude command line options don't seem to work).

Mike 6SJ7GT

I've installed Stellarium 0.10.2 and, actually,"startup.ssc"(with lat-long coordinates and GMT date and time introduced by "Sh4toStellarium.py") doesn't have any effect.
I've observed that Config.ini keeps "Paris" as "location" in [init_location] block.

Is it any other solution than "manual mode"?

I can't find any tool (sextant) in Stellarium to read a star altitude. How can you read it?

[Pisces]

For the 'sextant' measurement you need to press the 'z' button. Then you get the azimuth/altitude grid. Then you have to zoom in on the celestial object and 'shoot' against the nearest gridline.

I too had trouble getting Stellarium to accept a long/lat position through commandline parameters and config file. But the manual explains not everything works completely yet.

Maybe it's possible to add a 'city' location to the list with the sub's coordinates. And have Stellarium remember that as default location instead of Paris.

Unfortunately the older version (0.9 something) doesn't work with vista. Or my system anyway.

[6SJ7GT]

Cnao,

I just got stelarium 10 working. there is a file "Sh4tostellarium10.py in my Filefront page. Try that one and let me know if it works for you.

a couple of other things to do, is set the altitude default to 0 meters and the time_zone to gmt in the stellarium config file. This doesn't seem to affect the azimuth angles for the stars though.

Pisces, if you click on a star the information on altitude/azimuth is in the upper right corner. If the clock is ticking the numbers change fast enough that getting the altitude/time right on gives a small margin of error.

Mike 6sj7gt

[I'm goin' down]

Why?

[Pisces]

why do we want to use celestial navagation?

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

Why?

I'll answer with the quote that I use as email signature:

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your
hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you
choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your
destiny.
- Carl Schurz

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by 6SJ7GT

Pisces, if you click on a star the information on altitude/azimuth is in the upper right corner. If the clock is ticking the numbers change fast enough that getting the altitude/time right on gives a small margin of error.

Mike 6sj7gt

Yeah, but this is hardcore navigation, right? We got to create some means of measurement error in this method. The deck isn't even moving. Besides, I'm sure Don1reed never saw digital numbers rollover in his eyepiece.

[don1reed]

lol.
I still use Stellarium 9.1 and pressing the "6" key is just like speaking "mark" to my assistant to my mind...and of course I let errors creep in by using time that is 'seconds' off the mark.

I continue to wish for an observation scope designed so that it could/would pull secondary duty as a sextant; only if one of the digital guru's out there could add decimal degrees to the elevation. sigh.