Next on the Bucket List...Celestial Navigation

Ross · May 1, 2012

For learning celestial a davis mark 3 is adequate. I have one and can reduce a noon sight to about a five mile circle.

Stu Jackson · May 1, 2012

Jack, Ross is right, no reason to go buy anything expensive. We bought an old used Navy sextant at a swap meet, still haven't gotten around to it...

www.celestaire.com is a go to website.

I have a bunch of books: Mary Blewitt, Bauer among others. Even Chapman's or Dutton's has a good, albeit more "government-speak" approach, gotta be an engineer!!! Each of the books takes a slightly different approach to learning. I've gotten different ideas from each one.

David Lewis' Emergency Navigation is also a fun read while you're at it.

I don't believe you're on the downside, i think of it as the UPside! Consider the alternatives, ain't it nice to be able to DO what ya want?!?

Go for it. Best advice I got: forget everything you learned about the solar system - the early astronomers were right: the earth IS the center of the universe!!!

PS - I dunno if it'll help, but I play the guitar, so using a sextant should be easy, just pretend the earth is the sound hole!

Unless you go electric!

PPS - I'm told by SWMBO that I can continue to play the guitar, but I should refrain from singing (PI)!

Rich Stidger · May 1, 2012

Jack,

You are certainly chasing a "lost art". But I applaud your desire. I would recommend the United States Power Squadron classes. If you are not familiar with the squadron, check out the link below.

http://www.usps.org/

It used to be that in order to take USPS courses you had to be a member. In many local squadron right now membership is not a requirement because USPS now permits squadrons to teach the classes to the general public. Nevertheless I would definitely recommend membership for a wide variety of reasons, and the member price for the class will be much less.

You should contact your local squadron and ask if they are offering the Junior Navigation course. This course is the first of two college-level classes on Celestial Navigation. Completion of this class will give you the basic "how-to-do-it" knowledge. If you choose to go on to the Navigation course, you will gain the theory of why it works as well as learning how to reduce more complicated sights.

As for a sextant, I know students who have done well with one of the plastic Davis units. You will gain more accuracy with a more expensive metal sextant, and you may be able to find one in a consignment shop or on-line at eBay or Craig's list. I had the use of a Navy sextant when I was taking the classes and I was able to reduce sights to an accuracy of under two miles.

If you need a USPS squadron contact in your area, let me know and I will put you in touch with the right people. I even have friends in the Coast Guard Aux in NJ and they may teach some classes as well. If you wish you can PM me and I can give you more specific info.

navigator97 · May 1, 2012

I echo all of what Rich just said above. I've taken both USPS Celestial Navigation courses (JN teaches what to do and how to do it, and the next course, N, teaches why you do why you do it and emergency - Life Boat- celestial Nav). There is a book called Celestial Navigation in a Nutshell (I think that it's title) that is an excellent how to book. I cant remember the author.

cb32863 · May 1, 2012

I got my Davis mark 15 from Landfall, they have a "kit". The book is confusing as all get out and the DVD, I have never watched. A great book, used by ASA for the 107 Celestial Navigation class is by David Burch. EXCELLENT resource. I enjoyed learning to do celestial and I do it for fun, not necessarily as something I am going to use. Look for an ASA class, its a great thing to do to get one through the winter/on the hard months. As for a lost art, hardly, I think a lot of sailors learn it to reconnect with the "old days" and to have the satisfaction of learning a skill that a lot of people find arcane. I know I do. Good luck and enjoy the process of learning.

Ross · May 1, 2012

Celestial is easy when you finally understand that at some point on the surface of earth the sun, Moon, a planet or a star will be directly overhead. People have worked out the details of this and have it all written down. The sextant allows you to determine how far you are from the place on earth. Your watch, pencil, the almamac and the sight reduction tables allow you to determine where you are relative to a known place .

robertsapp · May 2, 2012

By no means do I want to discourage you, but I thought I'd share my recent experience. I signed up for a celestial navigation class at our local state college, because it's something I've also always wanted to know. I stopped attending about 2/3rds of the way through, because I learned that although I certainly understood the principles (I'm an engineer who also digs astronomy), I never saw any chance I'd ever use it. Going beyond noon sun sights and getting into the intercept method with an assumed position so that you can shoot stars and planets involves a whole bunch of detailed calculations that, if not continually practiced, would be quickly and easily forgotten, no matter how detailed the written procedure. It's truly a situation where you have to practice practice practice to remain proficient, and I decided there was no way I'd spend the rest of my life doing daily practice problems just on the off chance that sometime in the future I might find myself at sea without a functional GPS and need to take a sight. Plus for the price of one halfway decent sextant, I figured I could buy three to five backup GPS units for the boat.

Like I said, not trying to sway you, just wanted to share my experience with a similar wish.

Ross · May 2, 2012

My interest stopped when i realized that with a noon sight I could determine whether the inlet I was seeing was the Delaware bay entrance or the Chesapeake bay entrance.