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Time to adjust the sextant


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While yes, certainly a possible risk may exist. I also wonder how much of this is hype. Like Y2K. But then, the danger is that Y2K events may have made us callus and more scoffull of these possible threats, or should I say, the scientists that hail these threats. The threat has always existed and has indeed happened in the past. With a known threat, I don't undertand why our satillites have not been designed to withstand these events more. Or perhaps they have been designed as best as technology at the time has allowed. Maybe we can't even protect from these events at all. In some ways it is good that we still have natural events we can not master. It perhaps keeps as from becoming completely arrogant as a species. Not saying we are not already too arrogant.

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sh*t I think the sextant is somewhere in the shed with a coat of space dust on it, I will have to see. Mind you if the sun all of a sudden decided to sh*t it's pants, I wont be looking for the sextant, I may be inclined to go visit the next door neighbours wife though :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Don't forget we are using the creaky US military castoff GPS system that has been up there how long?

Is the replacement US military system as susceptible to the same solar activity?

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Don't forget we are using the creaky US military castoff GPS system that has been up there how long?

Is the replacement US military system as susceptible to the same solar activity?

 

The replacement Sats that were going to be fired up there starting in 2002? They are fine as they are all still on the ground. At the moment the array is being kept in operation by using the spares and is in a very fragile state from what I understand.

 

The Chinese and Russian systems are working fine.

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Yep the GPS sytem is looking shaky'er by the day. It is highly probable it may just all be allowed to fall out of orbit. In a nutshell, the US Military no longer actually need the system and they now have one major obsticle. Their are no shuttles to be able to go fix a satillite. The first shuttle has just been retired and the others will follow and there are no flights planned for Bird work and it could be quite sometime before the new shuttle designs start flying. The GPS birds are failing faster than the time it is going to take to get a new shuttle flying.

Europe was trying to get their own system up, but that has come to a big block wall called money, or lack of it. So it may not get off the ground either. Plus theoir system, along with the Chinese and Russian systems are not compatable with what civilianj equipment we have in our boats. So any new system will mean a whole new set of electronics required for us. If I was anyone in the market for a GPS at the mo, I would noit be shelling out a whole lot for a super wizz bang GPS that may well be an expensive blank screen somtime soon.

 

And something really concerning I would like to know is, what about the GPS positioning EPIRBS ??? Is it worth actually spending the money for a feature that may not work much longer. I really don't know. I hope I am wrong. But so far from what I have gleaned, it almost seems that the industry producing this gear is just blindly continuing on. It is almost like, if we don't ask, we don't have to tell. I reckon they must be highly religous. They keep putting their hands in the basket of "fishes and loaves" expecting to continue to pull them out full for ever.

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"The Galaxy 15 commercial satellite has not responded to commands since solar flares fried its CPU in April, and it won't turn off. Intelsat controllers moved all commercial payloads to other birds except for WAAS, a system that adds accuracy to GPS for landing aircraft and finding wayward geocaches. Since the satellite runs in 'bent pipe' mode, amplifying wide bands of RF that are beamed up to it, it is likely to interfere with other satellites as it crosses their orbital slots on its way to an earth-sun Lagrange point, the natural final destination of a geostationary satellite without maneuvering power."

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I had heard of Starfire and OmniStar, but not Galaxy. But DGPS is not something I have looked into much. Probably should as it is a comming technology I guess. Interestingly, I had not realised Sattelite was used at all in DGPS. I thought the entire system was land based only andthus limited to a short'ish range.

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I was told some time ago that the US Navy Academy in Annapolis MD no longer teaches Astro Navigation (use of sextant and reduction by Marc St Helaire or whatever).

 

It would be instructive to know whether this is the case!

 

I cleaned and oiled my sextant the other day and practised taking a few sights. I didn't attempt to reduce them but I've got Mary Blewit standing by in case.

 

As for pilotage, in previous years I've carried small scale charts as a back-up to the GPS but this year I've invested in large scale charts and we find them best for route planning, discussing anchorage options etc and I've got back into having the current chart open on the Chart table. Thus the GPS has become our back-up.

 

Could be the onset of second childhood, however.

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Found my sextant but somewhere in oall our moves the tables have been "reduced" to one out of date copy of volume one (stars). Must try boat books for vols 2 &3, even if I never use them again I feel a bit naked without them.

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Would love to have a play and learn how to use a sextant, however, the costs of even an entry level unit (not one of the shitty plastic jobs) tends to make me suck air through my teeth and shake my head.

 

I will probably get myself a sextant one day, but I'm afraid there's a few other items further up the priority list at the moment.

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Must try boat books for vols 2 &3,

 

I was in there a couple of weeks ago, there are copies on the shelve.

 

Had to climb over timber etc while I was browsing, they where doing alterations to the shop.

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