Celestial Navigation

by Tom Cunliffe

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. In these pages Tom Cuncliffe shows how to master the art in easy stages. Starting from a sound foundation of basic concepts and definitions, he moves on to the the sextant and how to use it. within a few pages he has you down on the beach, shooting the sun. From there it is a short step to working out your latitude from a noon sight, and learning how to plot a position from observation of the sun, planets, moon or stars - wherever you may be on the world's oceans. "He writes with the authority of a man who knows that his methods work in the most testing of all examination rooms, a small boat sailing on the open ocean."
—Bill Anderson, Formerly Rya Training manager

Genres: Nonfiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Tom Cunliffe (born 1947) is a British yachting journalist, author and broadcaster.

Cunliffe has been a regular contributor to Yachting Monthly, Yachting World, Sail magazine, Classic Boat and 'Sailing Today' for many years.

A professional writer since 1986, Cunliffe has won the Best Book of the Sea award twice, for Topsail and Battleaxe and Hand, Reef and Steer.[4] He is author of the important Shell Channel Pilot for the English Channel.

In 2010 he presented the award-winning six-part BBC documentary series, The Boats that Built Britain. He also presented the popular 'Boat Yard' series for Discovery TV. He now has a big following on his Youtube channel, 'Yachts and Yarns'.

Reviews

[Frank Pernett]

It is a good book. But, the basics were barely touched. If you don’t have a good background on celestial navigation you will be confused

[Dmitry]

As much as I appreciate Tom Cunliffe's writing in magazines and books, I did not find this book very useful. It is hard to use when you are actually trying to master celestial navigation without any prior background. In this matter, I think, the organization of the material is of utmost importance, and this book is a bit chaotic in that sense. The matters are somewhat exacerbated by the media of a Kindle book: all the references are skewed, the tables are gone fishing and the drawings are smeared. I may be on a mission impossible trying to learn celestial navigation from a Kindle, but this book definitely didn't fill the bill.