Who Still Practices Celestial Navigation ?

[Cheechako]

Learned it, every time I felt I really needed better location than DR.... of course it was poor weather and cloudy! Gave it up many years ago....

[dacust]

I am also in the "Have a sextant and intend to learn" group. Sadly I have been in that group for several years, now.

-dan

[Geoduck]

I taught myself how to take a noon shot while wondering around aimlessly in the Sea of Cortez in the early 60's. Brushed up again in the Carib in the 70's. Once more 2 days out of Gibralter in the 80's.
Had it all polished up, ready to go to Tahiti but never went - yet.
Now, I practice taking it out of the box and looking at it.
Mostly I wonder about the guy who REALLY used it during wwll.
It's a David White MKll 1940 vintage and I still have the key!
I just wish I had an I-phone back in the old days!

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by dacust

I am also in the "Have a sextant and intend to learn" group. Sadly I have been in that group for several years, now.

-dan

That's me too. Interestingly I work for the RN Dept who produce this:

Admiralty Manual of Navigation Vol 2

Perhaps they can teach me during lunch breaks, however, having flipped through it, it's a serious book as are the calcs

Pete

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Pete7

That's me too. Interestingly I work for the RN Dept who produce this:

Admiralty Manual of Navigation Vol 2

Perhaps they can teach me during lunch breaks, however, having flipped through it, it's a serious book as are the calcs

Pete

i reccomend it for bedtime reading,very sleep inducing!

[lat 64]

I voted #2
Four years ago I took a community college class in celestial Nav. I got a "c", and I worked for it.
I was rather bad at it, but I feel that I could get in practice. That seems to be the trick. My problem was just forgetting a step or two in the calculations. There is nothing more complicated in the process than fourth-grade math. It's just that if you miss one eensey-weencey step, it can put you on the other side of the globe. The accuracy seems to come from how sharp your eye and pencil are—really!
The instructor had us load up on the student-version equipment from Davis, so I can at least say I have the stuff aboard. I can bring it out to impress friends and when alone, I can pretend I'm Walter Mitty outwitting ETAP pirates in a post-2012 apocalypse.

Russ

[Don Lucas]

never leaned and don't see any reason to do so

this isn't the 1600s anymore

maybe if a sextant was like $50 I would learn but as long as a back up GPS is less than a sextant why bother other than to say you are all salty

[GorillaToast]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

never leaned and don't see any reason to do so

this isn't the 1600s anymore

maybe if a sextant was like $50 I would learn but as long as a back up GPS is less than a sextant why bother other than to say you are all salty

We better all learn how to use one. I heard yesterday, that you can buy GPS jamming device on eBay for dirt cheap.

[red_sky]

For myself, having programmed computers since the punch card days, I am pretty much somewhere between disinterested and loathing when it comes to anything digital. I have a chartplotter on here somewhere but I turned it on once and then put it away somewhere. Handy for unknown ports in the fog tho I guess. Thankfully the IT world didn't completely destroy my love of mathematics and it remains a fascinating language for me. I just got a real sextant a little while ago and have enjoyed calibrating it and dusting off my trig. For me, the sextant as a practice, even using it sideways for coastal cruising, will be a lot more fun and engaging then staring at yet another LCD.

[rubyjean]

I still do and feel comfortable with my abilty. Learned in the early 70's and made two single handled trips to Hawaii & back. Now using a GPS like everyone else, but this gives my grey matter something to do other than drinking rum. I don't care about being perfect, just comfortable wih it..
Michael

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

and don't see any reason to do so never leaned
so don't, no ones forcing you!!

this isn't the 1600s anymore
WTH has that got to do with anything!!

maybe if a sextant was like $50 I would learn but as long as a back up GPS is less than a sextant why bother other than to say you are all salty
Insecuruity as wide as the horizon!!.....

The question was......

Who Still Practices Celestial Navigation ?

[Don Lucas]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

......so why did you even bother answering ??.......no need to answer that as i have a fair idea.....

Oh give it a break! Why did YOU post in the thread, was it to provide this valuable input?

[annk]

There should be a fourth option that includes: learned and use it every once in awhile so I can pretend I still know how. I would check that one


+1

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Oh give it a break! Why did YOU post in the thread, was it to provide this valuable input?

And you consider your (a-hole) post as valuable input, jeebus, values have certainly taken a dive these days.....???

I still practice CN, but i don't expect anyone else to, i just don't care. But I do care though when others that have no intrest in a subject still feel the need to dump on the issue.....i have never understood this malady....

[jacob30]

Can someone reccomend a good learning sextant. I have seen the astra III and the Davis. Are these ok? Who has one and what do you think?