celestial precomputation

We have hosted the application celestial precomputation in order to run this application in our online workstations with Wine or directly.

Quick description about celestial precomputation:

Warning: I found an error if the DR position is on the southern hemisphere. The PUB249 pdf files did not show this error and are correct (as far as I checked). All Revisions 8+ and the Windows release have been fixed.

This Python TK application calculates a good set of stars for a 3 star fix, makes all calculations similar to the FAAs Celestial Computation Sheet (see FAA doc FAA-H-8083-18).

Also, you can create a PDF file that generates Pub 249 Vol 1 for any epoch you specify.

The PUB249 as PDF is found under "Files".

I wrote this for my aircraft bubble octant : -)
It is mainly useful for air navigation as it assumes a bubble sextant but may be used for normal sextants as well.

Requires Ephem and ReportLab (optional for PDF output)

Not to be used for real-world navigation!.

Features:

• Generate Pub 249 PDF file for any epoch you specify
• Calculate 3 Star fix
• Use any star that is in the USNO list of navigational stars
• Full support for sun+moon with upper or lower limb
• Calculates a set of 3 favorable stars with good geometry if fields are left empty

Audience: Education.
User interface: Tk.
Programming Language: Python.

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