Learn to find your position at sea from sextant sights of the sun, moon, stars and planets, plus the routines and procedures of safe, efficient ocean navigation.
Why study celestial navigation in the age of GPS? Because it's the only fully independent way to know where you are at sea. It keeps working when electronics, power or satellite signals fail.
This is a practical, how-to course with clear explanations of how and why each method works. Beyond fixing your position from the stars, it covers the other skills that matter in ocean navigation: logbook procedures, dead reckoning, error analysis and route planning. By the end of the course you'll be ready for ocean navigation. Thousands of students have learned celestial navigation from these materials and gone on to cross oceans and sail around the world.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
• Latitude, longitude and nautical charts
• Principles of celestial navigation
• Using and caring for a sextant
• Noon sights for latitude
• Running fixes from the sun
• Dead reckoning at sea
• Timekeeping
• Sight reduction for the sun, moon, stars and planets
• Star identification and sight planning
• Daily procedures and logbook keeping
• Route planning
• Compass checks at sea
• Radio use offshore
• Landfall procedures
• Using calculators
• Using the NAO sight reduction tables
• Emergency navigation techniques, plus notes on the latest GPS developments
COURSE MATERIALS
• Celestial Navigation textbook and The Star Finder Book (print)
• Plotting sheets and work forms
• Pub. 249 and Pub. 229 sight reduction tables, NAO tables and Bowditch references (digital)
The only extra items you may need are basic plotting tools (parallel rulers, dividers and a protractor). You don't need a sextant to take this course.
Prerequisites: None. No previous navigation experience is required. The math is simple arithmetic: adding and subtracting angles and times.
You won't be studying alone. Lessons, assignments and quizzes run in an interactive online classroom, with discussion forums and instructor support whenever you need it. Away from the computer, study with the printed texts, tables and work forms.
Platform: Mac or Windows. Accessible from any computer with an internet connection.