Our group began gathering on September 9th at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Our host, shown here on the left, was Don Treworgy, the head of the Planetarium.
They have quite a collection of sextants that they make available for group instruction sessions.
Here is the main planetarium building that we met in. The armillary sphere out in front of the building is featured on the cover of a Dover book on sundails.
Here is Frank Reed, a student of Don's who has been affiliated with the Mystic Seaport for many years, teaching us about taking "lunars". Frank is a great teacher and really understands celestial navigation and "lunars". He makes it all seem so simple.
The next day we met at Stonington Point, about four miles from Mystic Seaport. It has about 300 degrees of ocean in view - and we had a gorgeous day!
... a great day to be sailing...
Or motoring. Oh to be on the water!
Our oldest navigator was Arthur Pearson, a Navy man, and to the right is Curt Hafner, who I enjoyed talking photography with.
Here are two "lurkers" from NAV-L: Stan Klein seen here in the foreground, and Marc Bernstein in the background. Good guys.
Eight of us began to gather...
And many of us took our first lunar sights.
Here Stan and Don talk while Marc listens.
A "team photo" of the group. From left to right: Stan, Dan, Curt,
Art, Don, Marc, Gus, and Frank. As Frank said, "We are a monosyllabic lot
of celestial enthusiasts
Frank getting his own photos of others...
Frank and I. Not a great shot, but I had a great time getting to know Frank.
He and I had a pizza later that evening and talked a long time about many subjects.
Taking more shots of the sun and moon with our sextants. Those passing by were
a bit taken back by so many sextant users.
Still going an hour and a half later. What a great gathering.
We're going to do it again
June 16-18th, 2006 at the Mystic Seaport in CT. Grab your sextant and come join us!
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Created: 21 Feb 2006
Modified: 21 Feb 2006