Naval Academy Reinstates Celestial Navigation: “After All, You Can’t Hack a Sextant”

crytpogon.com ^ | October 14th, 2015 | Capital Gazette

[E. Pluribus Unum]

With regard to the statement below, about shutting down GPS during a national emergency: The U.S. can

Via: Capital Gazette:

Officials reinstated brief lessons in celestial navigation this year, nearly two decades after the full class was determined outdated and cut from the curriculum.

That decision, in the late 1990s, made national news and caused a stir among the old guard of navigators.

Maritime nostalgia, however, isn’t behind the return.

Rather, it’s the escalating threat of cyber attacks that has led the Navy to dust off its tools to measure the angles of stars.

After all, you can’t hack a sextant.

[butlerweave]

Obama’s New Navy just loves saying , “Sextant”

[Sacajaweau]

Should have never dumped Morse Code either.

[Scrambler Bob]

Can’t hack a sextant?

What if it’s made in China?

[Scrambler Bob]

And Morse was an old white male.

[Jacquerie]

I checked Amazon and was amazed to find HO 229 and 249 sight reduction tables are still available.

[Thunder90]

The Russians and Chinese would hack our GPS system, among other things, in a first strike situation.

[Red Badger]

You can’t hack a neutrino source either...............

http://www.google.com/patents/US8849565

[al baby]

lets just hope they think to have a good analog time piece

[savagesusie]

So correct on that (dumping Morse Code). They want total ignorant drones for the future Brave New World.

[Red Badger]

To a liberal it means Mutant Sex.........................

[Ace's Dad]

IIRC, aeronautical celestial navigation used to be taught exclusively by the Air Force.

[Red Badger]

Even an Apple Watch.....................

[al baby]

Looks Black to me

[Red Badger]

When I was in the Marines, way back in the 70’s, I bought a military watch at the local pawn shop.

I was informed that I could not wear the watch while in uniform.

Asking why, since it was a military approved watch, they said it was because only officers could wear such a watch.....................

[SkyPilot]

[al baby]

Even just plying the Costal Islands in So California i still dead reckon and keep a log course, speed, time, even with a gps going hell my daddy taught us that stuff we only missed Catalina island once

[al baby]

what kind was it ?

[Red Badger]

How do you miss an island that you should be able to see from at least 14 miles away?.....................

[central_va]

I was on a destroyer in the Navy and had to perform celestial navigation on a rotating basis weather permitting. The quartermasters would help you find the right stars with a hand held thing called 'crude star finder'. Then you used the sextant and a stop watch to "shoot" the stars.

Anyway one of these quartermasters was really a cranky type guy, we started to refer to him jokingly as the 'rude star finder'.