Online Celestial Navigation Course

[gjordan]

The man who goes to sea trusting electrons , probably trusts lawyers and faith healers. Sometimes they work and sometimes they dont. Do you know how to navigate after the lightning strike or the smoked alternator? Learn at least the basics of celestial(not just noon sites) and you will have the needed skills when things dont go as planned______Grant.

[Celestialsailor]

Even just noon sites will bail you out if need be

[minaret]

Anyone else here who's "quirky" own "Latitude Hooks and Azimuth Rings:How to Build and Use 18 Traditional Navigation Tools"? I love it. Forget the sextant, octant, or back staff, it's all about the Kamal. Super cool!

[Jimbo485]

Originally Posted by FruiVita

"inclination tables".....what is that..... I do not know any that you need in astro navigation.

I suspect the poster meant declination tables? You need to "correct" for magnetic north based on your lat/long. Every chart should state the declination for that area and it changes over time. I dare say I you don't understand how to apply this fundamental nav concept you shouldn't be navigating.

You better check the definitions of declination, deviation and variation, mate! If you don't know the difference between these fundmental navigation concepts, YOU shouldn't be navigating.

[Celestialsailor]

oh oh...another correctionist.

[Jimbo485]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

oh oh...another correctionist.

Ha ha! When a correctionist is wrong, CS, and tells other not to navigate, I just have to say something and thereby become a correctionist myself!

You know his explanation for declination was totally wrong.

[geoffh]

To anyone who chooses to learn celestial and/or coastal navigation I say good on you, for being both interested in, and practicing safe boating.When I did celestial nav, our class learnt to calculate long hand using Nories Book of Nautical Tables(no calculator) it was very satisfying. Do the courses and enjoy!

[Jim Cate]

Geeze guys, lighten up a bit! The OP asked a simple question: any recommendations for an on line Celestial course.

What has he received in return? One useful answer and whole lot of pontificating and some insults. He's been called a fool for wanting to learn something, he's been told that he couldn't possibly learn celestial because he hasn't had the oh so neccessary prerequisites. Not much useful response IMO.

From personal experience, it IS possible to learn celestial without ANY previous course work. I was fortunate that a JC in Contra Costa county had a physics prof who liked to teach celestial and offered a night school course. The only yachting related course I've ever taken, and it was useful in that it spurred me into action when I was otherwise too lazy to do the work. This was, of course, some while ago... 1983 to be exact! But the info was useful. Ann and I used it on our first offshore passage, SF-Hawaii-SF. We also used it some years later when our Sat Nav died as we approached the Tuamotus (treacherous electronics even back in 1986). I was really glad that I had the experience from that earlier passage and was game to attack the dreaded atolls. Otherwise we would have had to bypass them and miss out on some wonderful experiences.

Electronics have become more reliable, and of course GPS is far better than the Sat Nav system, but the same sort of thing can happen even today. It DOES happen, and having the skill set makes continuing your cruising safer and less harrowing should something go wrong on your boat.

So, again, lighten up and let's see if we can help the OP instead of castigating him.

Cheers,

Jim

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by David M

If one day GPS goes down there will be tens of thousands of amateur mariners who haven't a clue ...

All it takes is an amature with a high power laser on dual axis servos to damage the solar panels which power gps satellites enough to effectively disable them.

Originally Posted by SVTatia

+1 on that.

Also, one can always add some mod cons to celestial - instead of buying and using the almanacs, reference tables and doing the calculations, you can use the Celesticomp celestial calculator to minimize the time it takes to work a sight. But it is recommended to learn the basics first.

This is why I wrote the celestial navigation plugin for opencpn. The idea is to aid in learning celestial and for cross checking, but could be used as a primary source as well. If you can sight a few planets, some stars and the sun or moon, it is possible to get accuracy to a mile or better. The more sights of different bodies improves the fix (like more satellites on gps)

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by geoffh

To anyone who chooses to learn celestial and/or coastal navigation I say good on you, for being both interested in, and practicing safe boating!

+1, And also helping to keep an ancient and useful skill alive. One of the more satisfying trips I have done was arriving in Chile having done the last 1000 miles by celestial. And you never know, one decent solar flare and it might be for real...

RYA also does good courses.

Clear skies and crisp horizons.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Have seen a few times electronics fail for several different reasons and then any bytes stored on the chip or satelites transmitting data doesn't help nobody. Thou one celestial body just ditched to Siberia there are still some left...

You can use the same reasoning for Celestial Navigation... What happens when you get a week of rain and solid cloud cover while crossing an ocean. You dead reckon.

Now as for the Worldwide GPS system failing or being turned off?

If that happens I thik I would rather remain at sea since the world will either be at war or falling apart due to complete failure of our infrastructure.

[I.Grind]

Actually the GPS satellites could easily be disabled by powerful solar flare activity. There was an event about 100 years ago that they figure would have knocked the system out if it happened today. While an event of this magnitude (magnetude seems so much more appropriate) would certainly cause some major blackouts, I doubt the world would completely fall apart.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by I.Grind

While an event of this magnitude (magnetude seems so much more appropriate) would certainly cause some major blackouts, I doubt the world would completely fall apart.

Everything from emergency services to the military, from your local grocery delivery to the world package delivers, public transportion to world shipping are all using GPS. Not to mention, airlines, trains and thousands of others consumer delivery agencies.

Add to that, your theory of blackout and loss of computers... The would have significant delivery problems with food, oil and just about every other consumer product you can imagine.

If you don't think that would cause the world to become unstable, I guess we disgree.

[carstenb]

Well, I'm so old timer that I actually like books. No reason at all to go on-line to learn celestial.

H.O.249 has an excellent little book on celestial navigation. I learned it from this. It is very clear and very to the point.

You can download it for free at
FreeBookSpot | Download e-books for free

If you work at it, you will have learned the essentials in a weekend

goog luck

by the by, yes I also love the old sea, and keep a couple of hurricaine lanterns on my boat, along with an original oil lamp from the Frigate Jylland. And I have paper charts

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by geoffh

To anyone who chooses to learn celestial and/or coastal navigation I say good on you, for being both interested in, and practicing safe boating.When I did celestial nav, our class learnt to calculate long hand using Nories Book of Nautical Tables(no calculator) it was very satisfying. Do the courses and enjoy!

+2

... even if it's just for fun. I'm learning celestial nav this year simply because it forces me to be more aware of the sky, especially stars and planets. To see something bright at dusk and a kid asks,"What's that?", and i can say "That's Mars. (arrrrrrr....)"



(and thanks Gord for the link to the online nav course. I did the CYA coastal nav, but that site will be great as a brush-up)