Almanac tells the navigator where 

 each star is in relation to the earth's 

 surface and he is able to determine his 

 ship's position. 



With celestial navigation, a boater 

 can determine his position within one- 

 eighth of a mile — without the use of 

 electronics. "The new equipment 

 won't do anything the old wouldn't 

 do," says McNeill. "It's just easier 

 now." 



At the Morehead Planetarium in 

 Chapel Hill, Joe Snare teaches 

 recreational boaters the ancient art of 

 celestial navigation. Many of his stu- 

 dents' vessels are equipped with loran, 

 but Snare says his students prefer to 

 put their faith in the stars. 



"Electronics are subject to failure, 

 and when, you're miles from nowhere, 

 there's nobody to call to fix it," says 

 Snare. "But the stars will always be 

 there." 



The view of the new electronics is 

 the same from somebody who makes 

 the gear. Jerry Barton, a Harkers 

 Island electronics manufacturer, likes 

 to talk about the gear's evolution. He 

 points out that the first sonar of the 

 sea belonged to the dolphin, which 

 transmitted a sound and received the 

 echo with its forehead. And the patent 

 on celestial navigation belongs to 

 migratory birds, which have been 



found to use the stars to navigate on 

 their journeys. 



While sonars were around during 

 World War I, they weren't used com- 

 mercially until after World War II, 

 says Barton. He boasts of being the 

 only U.S. manufacturer of fish scopes. 

 Unlike most depth indicators on the 

 market today, Barton's fish scopes use 



Jerry Barton 



multiple transducers, allowing fisher- 

 men to tell if fish are to the left or right 

 of the boat as well as directly under- 

 neath. The scope is also equipped with 

 a bell that pings as it detects fish so 

 that fishermen don't have to con- 

 tinually watch a screen. 



Now, Barton is even working on a 

 electronic sextant to help boat owners 

 navigate by the stars, without having 

 to do any computations. So, why do we 

 need a sextant if we've got loran to 

 navigate for us? Barton says that if the 

 United States were involved in a war, 

 navigational systems such as loran 

 might be squelched. 



When Barton began manufacturing 

 his scopes, commercial fishermen in 

 North Carolina were still using 

 primitive gear and techniques, he says. 

 It's improved since then, but Barton 

 thinks there's still room for advances. 



He expects fishermen of the future 

 to be equipped with the most ad- 

 vanced fish scopes, deep water ther- 

 mometers and salinometers to gauge 

 the levels of salt in the water. 



But even after his thirty years of 

 working with electronic gadgetry, Bar- 

 ton concedes that his fish scope won't 

 do much good unless fishermen know 

 where to look for fish. 



— Nancy Davis 



