Description
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Celestial navigation is the one of the oldest of the mariner’s arts – and one of the most awe-inspiring. To guide a small boat across the trackless oceans using only a simple measuring device – the sextant – and the knowledge of the sun, moon and stars is a skill that borders on the magical. The book uses almost its entire content to cover the astro side of the RYA ocean syllabus. Equally relevant to the US-based student, this is a hands-on book for the beginner at sextant navigation. It assumes a sensible level of coastal navigation skills. Given these, a sextant, an almanac and a set of sight reduction tables, Celestial Navigation supplies all you need to find your way around the oceans in the age-old way using sun, stars and planets. Don’t wait to begin practising until your GPS goes out the port-hole, though. Like any worthwhile skill, this most beautiful one of all demands more than a last-minute swot-up if you are to do it justice.
Contents:
- How to use the sextant
- Noon sight
- Position lines and plotting
- Sun sights
- Planets, Moon and stars
- Compass checking on the ocean
- Great circle
Revised text, colour graphics, photographs and tables. 65 pages
Readers’ comments:
I have just turned back to my interest in CN. I’ve read Dunton’s, Bowditch and in desperation, even the the Davis 15 owner’s manual – ha!. Then I got smart and ordered a copy of your marvelous 64 page gem on Celestial Navigation.
You nailed it! Your book to me is like a life ring in a vast ocean. No algebra or detailed explanation about why there is green cheese on the far side of the moon. Just ‘how to” and simple explanations without all the mental gymnastics.
David R
Nearly 40 years ago I met Tom when I tied up on a visit to the Beaulieu river. After years of reading his articles in the mags. I was pleased to have a chat with him and found him a very friendly fella! When I saw his book on astro in a bookshop I bought it because I liked him, and I was struggling with Mary Blewitt’s very good book on the subject. Tom’s book should be called “Astro for dummies” because it taught this dummy well enough to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific purely with a sextant and tables and compass. Once I was “hands on” with using my sextant and finding a position, Mary Blewitt’s book made more sense to me and filled in more detail. Very pleased that a chance meeting with a very nice guy led to solving my navigational learning issues. Thanks Tom
Colin Peck
– Download Celestical changes- publishers corrections (PDF)
