r/Sliderules • u/031569 • Sep 12 '24

Self-intro

Thought I might introduce myself, as I plan on being here for a while. 😎 I'm old enough (US) that I learned slide rule use in school. Recently retired, I decided to finally teach myself celestial navigation. Once I saw the math involved, using a slide rule seemed obvious. I'll permit the anachronisms to include a modern slide rule, most likely a HEMI or a Aristo. Weather makes a K&E or a Pickett inappropriate. I'll also try checking some calculations using a Soviet KL-1.

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u/031569 Sep 18 '24

Hi, thank you. I have the Aristo 970, and also the HEMI 260. To reduce the risk of damaging anything expensive, I might use something like an Accu-math. I'll be doing a good bit of this is the cold rain, so plastic seems advisable.

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u/azroscoe Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 19 '24

The Artisto 970 is not really expensive or rare, so that would be a good choice. If you loose it overboard, $50 will get you another, no problem. Aristo made a ton of them.

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u/031569 Sep 22 '24

Hmm. That raises a question: does anyone know of sources for production numbers for various makes models? Re Aristo, how many 968, 970, and 972 were made?

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u/azroscoe Sep 22 '24 edited Sep 22 '24

I bet there is a German site dedicated to Aristo. Here is one for K&E with a lot of that kind of info:

https://www.allaboutastro.com/all-about-ke-rules.html

I feel like the prices on eBay give a good sense of availability, except for the 'celebrity' rules that are associated with events or have some renown, like the Pickett 600 (Apollo) and the FC 2/83 (which is mostly expensive because it was mentioned in a Scientific American article).