Celestial Navigation
Posted by wXMaddogXw@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 4 comments
I want to learn celestial navigation - any advice for materials needed and courses I should look into? Thank you in advance!!
CanBoatKingston@reddit
We still teach this! The next course starts Jan 6, global online hosted by Lunenburg squadron https://www.canboat.ca/course-calendar/?cps_show_course_details_id=226 Self study, plus a weekly discussion session with the instructors to test your knowledge & discuss questions that came up.
If you ever decide to go for an RYA Yachtmaster Ocean or a commercial master's licence, you'll need to know the basic celestial sights and calculations well enough to plot lines of position that way. At this level, being able to navigate out of sight of land under a total failure of onboard electrical systems is essential.
If you want to do a bit of self study to see if you like it: the necessary tools (sextant, plotter, dividers, scribing compass) can be had for under $150 total off eBay or Amazon. There's no need to buy higher-end fancy stuff until after you know what you're doing. Look up "how to take sun-run-sun sight" and "how to take noon sun sight" and the "intercept method of sight reduction". Download the local Sight Reduction Tables from https://msi.nga.mil/Publications/SRTMar and that'll get you far enough into it to see if you like the idea.
MissingGravitas@reddit
I found Tom Cunliffe's Celestial Navigation: Learn How to Master One of the Oldest Mariner's Arts to be a good introductory text. It has very clear illustrations to help with understanding the concepts, and covers all the basics (noon sight, sun, stars, planets, moon, Polaris, etc)
David Burch's book is a solid resource if you want to go deeper into the subject, but I think for many the biggest stumbling block is getting a solid mental model of the concepts, and that's where a simpler intro helps.
softshackle@reddit
My favorite book is “celestial navigation in the gps age”. However, this YouTube channel is the best instruction I’ve seen (better than most classes)
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWcAZhCRTMByW_XEQ0y0OlGmxO3jp0LyE
You have a decision to make about what level of “know celestial navigation” you are going for. If you just want to be able to take a sight and work a sun-run-sun fix, memorizing the steps (and using a worksheet that helps with that) is not too hard (the only arithmetic needed is addition and subtraction). If you want to understand what you’re doing (not need to memorize), be able to work more complex sights, etc, that’s more work (depending on your aptitude for math and geometry)
Anyway, what you need to get started is a nautical almanac (for the current year) a set of sight reduction tables (most people use HO-249, even though the name references air navigators) and a sextant (don’t get a used one—many are broken beyond repair—but a cheap plastic one is fine). You also need to be somewhere where you can see a horizon. If you don’t have a horizon, you can skip the sextant and learn to work sights based on data from generators online (less fun, but will work to learn). One point about that, however, is that actually taking the sight with a sextant is hard (and is a skill you need to practice)
Particular_Can_7726@reddit
I found the book Celestial Navigation A complete a home study course by David Burch very helpful