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Celestial Navigation for the Clueless
A simplified tutorial on how to do beginner and advanced Celestial Navigation sights and fixes. Illustrated with examples and marked tables to make the whole process easier. Contains complete information, worksheets, everything needed to learn (except the Nautical Almanac, which must be purchased separately).
During my search for knowledge about how Celestial Navigation works, I ran through hundreds of dollars of worthless books that did nothing but frustrate me. So, in order to help myself out, I started keeping a notebook for myself as I learned, fixing the learning problems along the way as I advanced, and ironing out wrinkles in other books' teaching methods. That notebook evolved into a full-blown book which you see here now.
I even went so far as to rebuild standard sight worksheets into a format that actually makes sense, in addition to fleshing out and simplifying instructions for use with the Nautical Almanac's compact SR Tables-- no need for cumbersome volumes of HO229 or 249 books!
The full book is 110 pages, is packed full of step-by-step examples, 3-D illustrations, etc. It contains full information and tutorials on how to do Polaris sights, Noon sights, Sun, Moon, and Star sights, Sight Reductions, and how to plot Lines of Position. It contains worksheets and all the pertinent almanac pages that the tutorials are based from. There is absolutely nothing more you will need, other than a sextant and an up-to-date Nautical Almanac, to learn and practice Celestial Navigation.
During my search for knowledge about how Celestial Navigation works, I ran through hundreds of dollars of worthless books that did nothing but frustrate me. So, in order to help myself out, I started keeping a notebook for myself as I learned, fixing the learning problems along the way as I advanced, and ironing out wrinkles in other books' teaching methods. That notebook evolved into a full-blown book which you see here now.
I even went so far as to rebuild standard sight worksheets into a format that actually makes sense, in addition to fleshing out and simplifying instructions for use with the Nautical Almanac's compact SR Tables-- no need for cumbersome volumes of HO229 or 249 books!
The full book is 110 pages, is packed full of step-by-step examples, 3-D illustrations, etc. It contains full information and tutorials on how to do Polaris sights, Noon sights, Sun, Moon, and Star sights, Sight Reductions, and how to plot Lines of Position. It contains worksheets and all the pertinent almanac pages that the tutorials are based from. There is absolutely nothing more you will need, other than a sextant and an up-to-date Nautical Almanac, to learn and practice Celestial Navigation.
113 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 29, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2020
Good over view of the subject. Will help you save money on other books.
March 11, 2017
This is the best plain English explanation of celestial navigation that I've found. I only gave it 3 stars as there are some errors and in places it needs better or more carefully detailed instructions. Fortunately we have the internet that can provide answers or fill-in some of the blanks in this book. I think CNFTC may be the best place to start, the first book to read if you are trying to learn celestial navigation on your own.
One of the virtues of this book is that many of the confusing technical and theoretical definitions are omitted. That's good to know information but confounding when you don't have anyone to ask a question of or clarify a point.
Besides, if you want that sort of thing nearly every other book on the subject goes to ridiculous even counter productive lengths to try and impart this knowledge while skimping on the plain language explanations that aid greatly in understanding. It's not strictly necessary to know it all to be able to do the navigation procedures. Just realize that you are missing some of the important background stuff that will make you a well rounded navigator. This book won't help you pass that important trigonometry test but you'll still be able to do CelNav.
If you choose this book, I advise highlighting or underlining the informational portions of the text. The author has a homey writing style, which is fine the first read through. After that, when you are re-reading and trying to figure out a procedure or nail down an explanation the extra text gets in the way.
I would think a re-write could bring this book up to 5 stars.
One of the virtues of this book is that many of the confusing technical and theoretical definitions are omitted. That's good to know information but confounding when you don't have anyone to ask a question of or clarify a point.
Besides, if you want that sort of thing nearly every other book on the subject goes to ridiculous even counter productive lengths to try and impart this knowledge while skimping on the plain language explanations that aid greatly in understanding. It's not strictly necessary to know it all to be able to do the navigation procedures. Just realize that you are missing some of the important background stuff that will make you a well rounded navigator. This book won't help you pass that important trigonometry test but you'll still be able to do CelNav.
If you choose this book, I advise highlighting or underlining the informational portions of the text. The author has a homey writing style, which is fine the first read through. After that, when you are re-reading and trying to figure out a procedure or nail down an explanation the extra text gets in the way.
I would think a re-write could bring this book up to 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews