The above photo was taken using a technique we published in a story titled “Shipboard Digital Camera Tricks“. Many more great moon pictures by the photographer, Licya, can be found HERE.

by Miranda Max

Sailors and captains have been using the moon to navigate the sea for ages. The history between the moon and the sea is deep and rich. We find the relationship even in literature, as in Emily Dickinson’s The Moon is Distant from the Sea.

The moon is distant from the sea,
And yet with amber hands
She leads him, docile as a boy,
Along appointed sands.

He never misses a degree;
Obedient to her eye,
He comes just so far toward the town,
Just so far goes away.

Oh, Signor, thine the amber hand,
And mine the distant sea, –
Obedient to the least command
Thine eyes impose on me.

Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, has evolved over several thousand years. Throughout this time the moon has helped sailors cross oceans without having to rely on estimated calculations and physical features. While the sun may be the easiest and most commonly used natural compass, the moon works just as well for the skilled navigator.

Angular measurements, when taken between celestial bodies in the sky and the visible horizon, are used to locate one’s position on land or at sea. Any celestial body is located directly over only one specific geographic point at all times. This location can be described by latitude and longitude and is known as the celestial body’s “GP”. From here, the precise location of a ship at sea can be determined by referring to the Nautical or Air Almanac, locating that exact second of time, for that calendar year.

Today the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force continue to instruct sailors and aviators on the moon and its use in determining your position. Using the moon for navigation has many benefits, such as its ability to be used independently of ground aids, its global coverage, its constant availability despite occasional cloud coverage, and the fact that it is much larger and easier to recognize than stars and planets.

If it weren’t for the relationship between the moon and tides, navigation wouldn’t be possible. A significant gravitational pull exists between the earth and the moon. This pull causes tides in the ocean to occur. As the moon’s gravity pulls the earth and water towards it, the water moves to the side of the earth that faces the moon. At this same instant, another force pulls the water in the opposite direction because of inertia. Furthermore, these two opposing forces are equal to each other, and are always simultaneously moving toward and away from the moon.

Navigating by moon is accomplished relatively easily using the celestial navigation tables and a sextant. Today we keep alive a rich history of ocean navigation through photos and old stories, calling to mind the images of ships from long ago and sailors who never miss a degree, obedient to the moon as their captain.

Geoholm Fourchon Sunset

The above photo is from Flickr user whink27‘s photostream.  Click on the image for some more really great pictures of various workoats in the GOM from whink27′s.

Thanks to gCaptain member studbuzzer for bringing it to our attention on this thread of the forum.

In the wake of “500 Knot Transit“, Houston Pilot Lou Vest‘s time lapse photography of a recent tranist comes this photography of .

Lou writes:

This is another time lapse video made by setting a camera on a tripod (preferably, in this case a stack of books) and setting it to take a photo every 6 seconds. The playback is at 10 frames per second so the action is shown at 60 times as fast as it actually happened. In this case the part of the trip shown lasted 76 minutes (out of a 5 hour trip). Taken on the upper Houston Ship Channel. Read More…

For more of Lou’s photography click HERE and for more Time Lapse Photography click HERE.

Some of you may have noticed the recent change we made to gCaptain’s homepage.  I will not get into the underlying reasons for the switch, but one thing we (and you hopefully) miss is the “Photo of the Day”.  That being said, we want to do our best to promote what a great tool Flickr is for sharing photos amongst professionals and amateurs alike.  That is why we are starting Photo Friday, where we will post the slideshow from gCaptain’s regularly updated photostream of favorites from around the Flickr community.

Flickr has a photo set of the Pacuro Storm Iced over. Click HERE to see the photos or head straight to the Photo Slideshow. Photos by terrafesta.

by bhophoto

HDR photo of an FPSO being built at the Hyundai Shipyard in Korea. This is only the thumbnail… Click on the photo for a larger view!

For more HDR photos of shipyards visit Flickr: LINK

Maritime Photographer David Parody shot these photos of the M/V Fedra aground at Gibraltar. Play the entire slideshow and you will also get to view his photography of the M/V New Flame sinking in the Straight Of Gibraltar early this year. The full size HD version of this slideshow can be seen HERE.

Photos Copyright DM Parody 2008

This morning Fred Fry pointed us to this amazing time lapse video by our favorite maritime photographer. Click HERE for the details.

Our photo of the week shows the Canadian Tall Ship S/V Concordia undersail. It was taken by Flikr photographer Oriano nicolau. The original can be found HERE.

Shipspotters (via Fred Fry‘s Discoverer Entry) brings us Zhen Hua 10 Stranded on Beach near Rotterdam!

We detailed the sister ship Zhen Hua 5 ship in a previous video post titled: Time Lapse Video – Moving a Crane

Ship Of The Day tells us:

Today we have a very special report at Ship of the Day. In the night between friday and saturday, the heavy load carrier Zhen Hua 10 (IMO: 7917410, Port of Registry: Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines), which was anchored near Rotterdam, ran adrift in storm conditions and floated towards the Dutch coast, where she finally ran aground at the ‘Slufter’-beach at the Maasvlakte. For a while it appeared that the vessel was in danger of capsizing, but she was soon stable being stuck in the sand. The Zhen Hua 10 is loaded with 5 containercranes (of which one is destined for the new Euromax-terminal at Rotterdam) from Shanghai and has a crew of 33, which are still on board and not injured. Continue Reading…

Location of beached ship:

AIS Map by dirk.jan

Video of beached ship:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Related Links:

• Flickr Slideshow of Incident
• Shipspotters Discussion
• PortPictures – Incident Photos
• Pre-Incident Photos of Crane Ship Zhen Hua
• Original Tugspotter Blog Post
• VIDEO of the incident
• Time Lapse Video – Moving a Crane

UPDATE:

Dirkjan (creator of the AIS plot seen above) emailed us with the following update:

I have some news: Zhen Hua 10 is floating again since an half hour. I see this on my Shipplotter screen.
Earlier on Monday they managed to turn the vessel 90 deg,
heading to sea, and around midnight they used 3 harbourtugs
and one big tug (Janus IMO 9367504) and this was succesful.