Hi Team Boats,

Has anyone used this software and if so what is your opinion of it?

www.tecepe.com.br/nav/
Thanks,
plev

I wrote a program in a subset of basic for the Sharp hand held computers, it had the site reduction and atmospheric corrections and all the almanac except Saturn and Jupiter ( the maths were too involved ). trouble was it used an abbreviated algorithm to find Aries that didn't roll over on the 21st century, and in any case the Sharp computers are no longer available.
Converting to an app for modern tablets is not a good option, modern languages don't lend themselves to the maths used for the reductions of sun moon and planets. Does anyone know of an equivalent to the old Sharp?

someday said..

PhoenixStar said..
I wrote a program in a subset of basic for the Sharp hand held computers, it had the site reduction and atmospheric corrections and all the almanac except Saturn and Jupiter ( the maths were too involved ). trouble was it used an abbreviated algorithm to find Aries that didn't roll over on the 21st century, and in any case the Sharp computers are no longer available.

Wow, that's really cool. I guess then you probably have a copy of Turner, Celestial for the Cruising Navigator on your bookshelf (note to others: this is an advanced book on celestial navigation that describes the mathematics of calculating the fix on a programmable calculator or computer, for those learning celestial navigation you would probably want a more introductory book on manual methods, such as, Bergin, A Star to Steer Her By).

PhoenixStar said..
Converting to an app for modern tablets is not a good option, modern languages don't lend themselves to the maths used for the reductions of sun moon and planets. Does anyone know of an equivalent to the old Sharp?

This note:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_calculator#BASIC

suggests the Ti-89 Titanium or the Voyage 200 should work. This emulator has a debugger which should make it easier (and also you could try out the emulator first to help decide if the you like the programming language on the calculator) :

lpg.ticalc.org/prj_tiemu/features.html

You need something that will accept a language to handle strings and numbers like the subset of basic in the Sharp g-850, not just remember a series of key strokes. I did hear of one that recognises Fortran and that would be great.

That Aries algorithm is a beauty - not mine, I got it from a guy from Redcliffe years ago. Just one line of code. Don't know how it works and I gave it to the gun C programmer at Ithica and he didn't get it either. It calculates the seconds from the 1950 epoch taking to account the irregular month lengths and leap years to the time of observation.

Bowdich "American Practical Navigator" is the best source of the trig involved, he gives all the popular methods. And I use a couple of paper backs that have the maths involved for sun. moon, GHA Aries and the planets. Cant remember the titles and I am away from home. but if there is an interest I can post them when I get back in early Feb.

There are a couple of interesting solutions like noon if you don't have accurate time and sunset and sunrise if you don't have a sextant.

there are heaps of programs available for the PC but they are a bit useless in that the only time they would be needed is when you have a complete electrical melt down. Then a programmed hand held kept in a metal box might be handy. You would still need charts for plotting.

My suggestion is learn how to use the sextant on a small yacht first. I have a celestial Nav qualification from my Navy days and am still to get a good sight on a yacht. It ain't easy.
once you know you can do it get what you need to produce a fix.
The rarity and cost of getting all the documents and keeping them up to date makes using a program the logical thing to do, but using non electronic methods means you have achieved nirvana in self sufficiency.