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