Because its 2019 and all that... I learnt stellar navigation

[Mantock]

Hey babes, how we all doing? awake yet? EXCELLENT.


So last night I was doing this livestream across the Atlantic in the Connie, trying to teach myself stellar navigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owwJbi8V8NY

It was a TON of fun! Loved the fact that we can actually pull this off in the sim. And it got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great if we had inbuilt A2A gauges for the bubble sextant? Or maybe even the bubble sextant featuring in the 3D flightdecks of the Connie, B377 and Lanc...*cough... oh yea dangit.............................but pretty please??




Currently the navigator stations in the A2A airliners are kinda just there for show I feel, not much goes on, you don't actually ever go there to do something, its just....there.

Thoughts? Feelings? I know it would probably take a lot of research to get right and time coding etc.

[Marco909]

Thanks Peter, I'm gradually working my way through this latest marathon! I had a look at the bubble sextant tutorial a while back, one of those things I intended to revisit but never got the time to dedicate to it. I'll have another go.

Yes you're right about the nav station, perhaps something for A2A to work on for the Connie and B377 (as long as it doesn't delay 'my' B-17 too long ). I'd also like the option of voice sets, wouldn't it be great if forum members could give the backup A2A would need for this? I'm sure we must have a few interesting and varied accents between us. Happy new year to you all. Regards, Mark

[Mantock]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT8CRi9k4bo

[Lewis - A2A]

Nice! What a start to the year for you to learn that form of navigation hehe

cheers,
Lewis

[Hook]

I really appreciate you posting this. I watched parts of the video, then googled FSX bubble sextant and found the tutorials.

I have been reading a book ("North Star Over My Shoulder" by Bob Buck) and he talks a lot about teaching himself celestial navigation then using it on many flights. I have always wondered how it was done.

Does anyone have a good link to the books they used to determine how high a star or planet should be? I'd like to see how complicated they are. I'd call this an ephemeris but I'm not sure about the term used in celestial navigation, possible celestial almanac.

For some reason I'm not getting stars in Prepar3D v2.5 but I remember seeing some in FSX.

Hook

[Alan_A]

Does anyone have a good link to the books they used to determine how high a star or planet should be?

You can use this online almanac. It's the one linked by AJ Crowley in his YouTube tutorials about FSX/P3D celestial navigation and the use of the online sextant gauge. (FYI that you may get a security warning if you click on the link. It's a certificate issue - the site is run by the US Naval Observatory and it's perfectly safe).

You don't actually have to take star sightings using the visible stars in the FSX/P3D sky. You can take your sightings using a combination of the gauge and the almanac data for your assumed position.

The tutorials are great. Part 1 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Es9Qi8z4is

...and Part 2 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M-IJ7h0vQM

I've been reading up but haven't yet had the time (or for that matter courage) to take this on.

But that's what the new year is for, right?

[Hook]

Thanks, Alan. I watched him use the online almanac in the first video so I know how it works. I was wondering more what they were using in 1940.

I've seen examples of real almanac pages. It looks like they all have information for specific days. I got the impression from reading that the almanac the author used was fairly thin and covered more than a specific range of dates. I could be wrong... In any case he described the process as being really simple.

I'm less interested in doing celestial navigation in P3D using actual stars that I am in the fact that they just aren't visible. If I enhance brightness considerably in a screen shot sometimes I can see some. I remember seeing the Pleiades in FSX quite clearly once.

Hook

[Alan_A]

Ah, got it, sorry!

There must have been small, portable almanacs for specific time periods. Am not finding any specific ones on a first quick search but they must be out there - you'd think the navigators would want something light and easy to work with.

I understand the night sky in P3D 4.4 is considerably darker, so the stars might actually be more visible - haven't done a full night flight yet, but will take a look when I do.

[Bruce66]

Snap!

I have been learning this new skill as well only in the C-47 (Inspired by 'Fate is the Hunter').

The stars I am using are by Flight Sim Jewels - available free on their website (sorry no link as on phone).

[AKar]

Cool stuff, thanks for posting. There is also this free AutoStar X that adds a ton of stuff missing from the default sky (be that of help or nuisance...) and puts things such as planets into correct positions per date.

Call me a perv, but I found things such as cartography and navigation systems and techniques very interesting; I once began studying inertial navigation and GNSS in detail, but had to put that on hold before getting into finest details due to other obligations taking precedence.

-Esa

[Hook]

Snap!

I have been learning this new skill as well only in the C-47 (Inspired by 'Fate is the Hunter').

The stars I am using are by Flight Sim Jewels - available free on their website (sorry no link as on phone).

The night sky enhancement is no longer available. The site says they're working on a new version. I tried a google search but where it is mentioned it only gives the link back to Flight Sim Jewels.

The only thing I want is to see the stars. I don't care about all the rest. I didn't have much luck with AutostarX and I don't want all the other stuff it adds.

Hook

[blockwood]

The US Naval Observatory has downloads for the Air Almanac.

https://aa.usno.navy.mil/publications/docs/aira.php

There is a page for each day. Navigators would have a small book for the year. It would have all the data for the sun, moon, planets and stars and lots and lots of other information.

Using the almanac would only be part of the solution. The actual height and azimuth of the body would be extracted from Publication No, 249, Volumes 1 (Stars), Volume 2 & 3 (sun, moon, planets).

I retired as a USAF Navigator, and spent most of my career working with and teaching celestial navigation.

In my last aircraft, the RC-135, we had and astrotracker that automatically shot the stars and updated the inertial system. It could get a star fix about every 110 seconds. It could shoot stars on the brightest days. Pretty neat trick. It was hard to compete with a machine, but we still manually shot celestial until about the year 2000.

[Bruce66]

The night sky enhancement is no longer available. The site says they're working on a new version. I tried a google search but where it is mentioned it only gives the link back to Flight Sim Jewels.

The only thing I want is to see the stars. I don't care about all the rest. I didn't have much luck with AutostarX and I don't want all the other stuff it adds.

Hook

Sorry for the dud steer.

From the documentation for the Flight Sim Jewels enhancement the stars are from the guy who made Autostar X anyway. Did Autostar X not work with P3D or was it a different kind of problem?

Aside: I took a look at the FSJ blurb about the new version of the night sky enhancement and it looks not bad - with Northern Lights and all. It doesn't say if it will still be free or if it will become payware. But it is a shame they didn't leave the old version available for users until they were ready with release of the new one.

[AKar]

In my last aircraft, the RC-135, we had and astrotracker that automatically shot the stars and updated the inertial system. It could get a star fix about every 110 seconds. It could shoot stars on the brightest days. Pretty neat trick. It was hard to compete with a machine, but we still manually shot celestial until about the year 2000.

Those things are fascinating, from good old days of electromechanics and analog, mechanical computers. From days before engineering ingenuity got boring. Proper, humming, slowly spinning-up gyros even, and none of this solid state laser interferometry garbage.

Did Autostar X not work with P3D or was it a different kind of problem?

It does, though needs some easy tricks to point into a correct place, and if I recall, some .dll file is missing in later Windows versions, at least I had to download something for it to work in Win7.

While at the topic of stars, I noted by chance that Stargazer is on sale, so I purchased it to try out. Seems very good so far! Higher magnitude numbers apparently fill the sky with starts that are not visible to naked eye even up there, but using the magnitude setting in moderation appears to bring very realistic looking results. I don't think it does daily positioned planets yet, though.

-Esa

[Hook]

I watched the Stargazer video and was like, Wa-freakin'-hoo.

Many years ago when I still lived in town, I had to drive someone out to Gilmer, Texas, way out in the boonies. This was in September. I had been using skyglobe software a lot at the time and was very familiar with the sky.

When I got out of the car and looked up, the sky looked very much like that video. I got tears in my eyes. There were two obvious colors in the Milky Way. The center of Andromeda was clearly visible, and I swear I could make out spiral arms, but I can't be absolutely certain because they were somewhat larger than I would have thought.

Where I live now in Bonham is too close to city lights to get a sky that good. It used to be better 15 years ago.

Someone told me that he was in the Empty Quarter in Saudi to watch a meteor shower and the Milky Way was so bright it obscured the meteors.

Hook