NASA develops new type sextant

[Thumbs Up]

The Polynesian voyagers did it. (still do)

[barnakiel]

One look at 50% of human population leaving a shopping center shows the innate magnetic abilities of our brains is a DailyMirror summer stuff.


b.

[NorthCoastJoe]

Hell most teenage drivers can not find the mall without GPS.

[acem]

Well I won't have to make my own. I bought a tayama off fleabay. It should be in late next week.. Thx-Ace

[SeanPatrick]

Great! If you need any advice on checking the mirror alignment and getting it all set up and ready to take sights (or anything else related to celestial), don't hesitate to ask. I'd be happy to help!

[Enfant Du Vent]

Newport, RI to England WITHOUT a Sextant


I was having drinks in a Newport Yacht Club bar with 2 men who said they were airline pilots. They knew I was the navigator on a Hinckley 49 headed for Bermuda the next day.
So when they said they had a navigation question for me I thought, "Oh oh, this is going to be a tough one." The first one said, "How would you sail to England without a sextant?" I sat there a moment or two, trying to figure out how they hell I'd do that.
Then the other one supplied the answer, "You steer toward the sunrise. When you make landfall, if the people have dark skin, you turn left."

[Steve Bean]

Alberto Torroba, Argentine, sailed across the Pacific in a dugout canoe using a plumbbob to follow the paths of stars whose latitudes he knew.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by acem

......
I have read stories of people sailing from California to Hawaii and back without any navigational instruments. They follow the contrails in the sky to Hawaii. Back to California, they just go east until you find land.
.....

Thx-Ace

The contrails seem to be broke....when one is is sighted hereabouts we all run outside and look up at the heavens in awe and wonderment...

PS Edit... I live under what I think was the 4th busiest air corridor in the world...Melb /Syd/Melb... we also see/saw Melb/Bris on a good contrail day...

[acem]

Really? I heard the air traveling was down but I did know how much.

I just looked at the sky here and no contrails. I farmer/ranch in rural Arkansas so I have an unbroken view of the sky.

Thx-Ace

[hpeer]

Honest to God true.

If we walk into a new McDonalds my Wife can not find the car. She may not be able to identify the door she came in. If in a store and I am waiting for her she will call me to come get her.

I have a couple of truly terrifying navigation stories.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Singularity

-Tinfoil hat trigger warning-
Some very interesting research has been done over the years on peoples' innate sense (or not) of direction based on magnetic fields (not to mention other topographic mental faculties of varying ability).

For some context, dogs have been found to predominantly relieve themselves facing N/S when ambient magnetic fields are stable, while at least certain birds navigate using principles of quantum entanglement.

One older study in humans (?1980s in UK) found that people could be blindfolded, driven about, and have a >50% chance of pointing towards home (or somesuch). More recently folks were placed in a Faraday cage whereupon fields were introduced to replicate Earth's fields, wherein EEG/brainwave changes were reliable induced.

What all this (and other) research suggests is that some of people will excel in navigation for reasons they will never understand. Not just, per se, that they're good with a compass and ruler and sextant, but their 'spidey sense' intuition plays a more dominant roll than they recognize...behind the scenes guiding the whole operation.

All this otherwise lends credibility that some people likely are genuinely more sensitive to EM radiation, jokes withstanding.

Not tin foil hat stuff. There are many animals/insects/marine life with amazing innate navigation abilities. Think of the long pelagic migrations that whales make...how do they do that?

Maybe humans had better abilities at one time, but have mostly lost them to evolution.

[acem]

I have lead many boy scouts on backpacking trips. It is obvious in the field that some people have a natural ability for navigation while some struggle with the basics.

[Charles S]

Much more reliable:
We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific https://www.amazon.com/dp/0824815823/

[Knig]

As all ex Royal Navy matelots know, that however drunk they get 99% of the time they can find their way back to the ship!! The other 1% are sober :-)

[nestorph]

Originally Posted by SeanPatrick

$3200!!


I paid less for my 1781 printing of the Tables Requisite ... and that's actual history!

Yeah, I would wait for the video...or youtube entry