Tamaya NC-2 Astro-Navigation Calculator

While visiting the USS Flagship Niagara Museum here in Erie, Pennsylvania, I spotted this NC-2 Astro Navigation Calculator manufactured by Tamaya circa 1976. Its age is betrayed by the green fluorescent numerical display. Quoting from the NC-2 user's manual, "Tamaya NC-2 Astro-Navigation Calculator can perform navigational calculations quickly and economically. It eliminates painstaking tabulation from conventional tables, and is not only faster but more accurate. Included in the navigation programs are Dead Reckoning, Course and Distance by Mercator and Mid-latitude Sailing, Course and Distance by Great Circle Sailing, Altitude and Azimuth of a body for Celestial Navigation, Most Probable Position, Time and Arc calculation. and TIME=ARCconversion. In addition, NC-2 features with four scientific function keys and the normal arithmetic calculation capabilities." (slight Japanese-to-English wierdness)

Tamaya also published a more detailed instructional manual titled, "The Complete Digital Astro-Navigational Piloting and Dead Reckoning." (click on image to right)

At the time of this writing, a like-new NC-2 is available for purchase for $650.

Here is a link to this and other electronics navigational calculators.

Posted July 5, 2012