NAVIGATOR
Omar Reis Navigator is a remarkable program, and has received high
praise from many expert navigators. It embodies many features rarely found in
one program, and certainly not at such a low price. Its many celestial navigation
features are:
- Perpetual Almanac for all bodies (to year 2031)
- Star Finder
- Meridian passage calculation
- Lines of position calculation
- Fix calculation
- Print star finder and star charts
- Print daily pages of the almanac
The star finder is a polar chart of the visible sky at a given time and position. You
can point at a star and see its name, altitude and azimuth. Or you can point
on the speadsheet and see the corresponding star on the chart. Lines of position
are actually plotted on a small inset chart (centered at your estimated position)
with all the data affecting its computation shown. Fixes are shown as a result
of the LOPs.
Daily nautical almanac pages can be printed out. All that is needed
is the initial date of a 3 day period. These pages are very similar to the official
Nautical Almanac in arrangement and data, and show: star position tables (SHA
and dec), sun and moon hour tables complete with increments and semi-diameter,
planets hour tables with increments, aries hour table. Not included are: The
latitude functions such as twilights and sun and moon rise and set, sun equation
of time and meridian passage, and moon meridianpassage. While not intended to
substitute for the official Nautical Almanac, it nevertheless is quite enough
to do celestial navigation using the traditional methods.
Charting Features
- Scan your own charts
- Import GIF and JPEG images as raster charts
- NMEA GPS interface
- Create routes and tracks
- Plot position and save track in real time
It should be understood though, that this is primarily a celestial navigation
program, and is not meant to replace other more expensive and more complete
charting software. It will not read commercially available raster or vector
charts. It will, however, read charts you scan yourself, and save as a GIF or
JPEG image. In fact you will have unlimited zoom in or out capability with excellent
clarity. This feature of making your own charts from paper charts, cruising
guides, or even roadmaps is becoming very popular with navigators using other
programs (such as Fugawi).
The program comes with a beautifully illustrated
and comprehensive printed User1s Manual. System requirements are PC (486 or
pentium) running Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. SW 1 lb.
NAVIGATOR