The dVerse challenge was to write a poem of precisely 44 words, not counting the title, including some form of the word star. I used the plural form.
Celestial Navigation
Way back,
before cell phones, Google,
moving maps,
and satellite navigation.
At Mather Air Force Base
near Sacramento,
I studied
stars, planets, the moon, and Sun
using a sextant, books, and computations.
The Planetarium was our classroom.
Navigators are no longer taught. It’s sad.
Look both ways looking at the night sky.
Magellan did.
Mind the gaps in the sky as you learn the names of stars, planets, and constellations.
Our Literary Journey 
It is sad that those arts (and they are arts!) are no longer taught.
Nicely done, sir.
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Thank you, Dale. The military no longer needs the “craft.” Honestly, it is not that accurate. 🙂
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I know, but I like to think that on that day where all hell breaks loose and nothing works, in comes that person who says: Yo! We gotta go old school!
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Is there anyone left who can even read and navigate by a road atlas printed on paper much less by a sextant and star chart?
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I travel with a paper road atlas, just in case.
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This is such a nostalgic and fascinating glimpse into a different time and method of navigation.
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“Prepare to turn left.” 🙂
Thank you.
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Wow, Bill! I’d never thought of that before! You’re right – it is sad 😦
~David
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Thank you, David.
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Never mind Bill, come the apocalypse you will be in great demand!
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Oh, a fine time that will be. 🙂
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My old NBC warfare qualification may be called upon too!
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Oh dear. It gets messy. 🙂
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So many “basics” are rejected that the whole world seems to just be ‘winging it’. Rather frightening.
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Technology and AI are worrisome. But, maybe not so bad.
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“To err is human. To completely foul things up, requires a computer.”
A person will second-guess himself. Our blind faith in computers may be to our detriment.
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You may have a point there, Susan. 🙂
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Ah, YES! Stars as a map! For so long, they were all navigators had! I love this!
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🙂
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I love your quadrille … recently returned from a month in Florida including a visit to Kennedy Space Center … OH the stars, the stars in massive displays, IMAX films! I could have spent days there. I envy your early education, what that meant to you, the impact.
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Thank you, Helen.
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I think it’s really funny that we draw imaginary lines from star to star, call them constellations. Oh, look! A scorpion! Bears, big and small! Look out for that archer guy!.
Nice work. Thanks.
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Thank you, The arrangement of stars helps to find others. We even made some up, “The Arc of Capella,” for example. To this day, I use the big dipper to find Polaris (aka, north star). 🙂
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I think too many non-digital things are being cast away with arrogance? ignorance? and many times will come back to bite us later. I remember my ex- used to have to do math on a slide rule when he was in college, but since they have designed scientific calculators, I’m guessing nobody uses them anymore. When the electricity goes we are in trouble. Nice to see you at dVerse, Bill. Hope to see you here again 🙂
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Thank you, Lisa.
The Air Force no longer uses the “navigator” designation. They are trained differently and called “CSOs” (Combat Systems Operators).
I remember all the engineering majors with holsters for slide rules flopping on their sides.
I used one for flying computations, but it is circular. Technology is fine, but do we have to toss everything else?
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You’re welcome and good question.
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I often bring paper maps on roadtrips just in case. I have had GPS problems and those maps came in handy. There are dead zones where the GPS doesn’t work.
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There’s so much light pollution it’s hard to even see the stars in many places.
I hate GPS. I’m always telling Lyft drivers to go a different (better) way than the GPS suggests–it has no sense of space or direction at all. I also like to look at a real map of where I’m going so I can orient myself. I need visual clues.
But I’m old, and I grew up using maps. (K)
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Me too.
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What an extraordinary skill to have. How incredibly sad to think people will no longer learn it. I hope there are sailors out there who still understand the old ways of navigating.
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The Navy still uses navigators and still publishes the almanacs and other tables for this purpose of navigation by the stars. 🙂
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Oh good. I felt very sad to think it was a forgotten skill.
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It is a craft some still pursue. 🙂
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I too was in that generation, nice lament. But, . . . . the computers know and someone
has to be able to teach the computer. We an air defense missile control computer, it was analog. 🙂
..
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I just read that AI is putting computer programmers and engineers out of work. Oh, the irony. 🙂
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Technology is a gift and a curse. I also miss the old mechanical cars and motorcycles, where all you needed were hand-held tools to repair them unlike today where everything has a computer mind.
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I still work on my cars, motorcycles, and bicycles in my garage. It is different. The skills I reference are learnable and the books are available on line. 🙂
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A lovely poem–to navigate by the stars is a wonderful skill.
I heard Morse code is undergoing a revival, perhaps celestial navigation will, too.
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Thank you, Merril. It is all available on line. 🙂
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You’re welcome.
Yes, I’m good at research. 😏
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A lost art… but i think there are those people who still does this.
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Yes. It is still done and the information is available. 🙂
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