"Any kind of boating can be fun," the author points out, "racing around the marks, or coastwise cruising where there is almost always at hand visual reference ashore from which bearings can be taken for locating one's position and thus finding one's way home. Severing these ties with land, however, offers a new kind of fun, a new kind of freedom, a freedom from dependence on land." Here is a basic beginner's book, introducing the amateur to the tools, the vocabulary, and the techniques of celestial navigation. Among the recommended tools are the H. O. 249 tables, the most widely used among amateur navigators at sea because of their simplicity. The ability to determine one's position at sea both liberates the sailor from the land and enables him to find his way to his destination. If you can read, add and subtract, understand angles, and use a protractor, you can learn to navigate in your armchair or at sea from Celestial Navigation by H. O. 249.

This manual has grown out of all the courses given by Dominique Prinet, a certified Instructor-Evaluator for Sail Canada who has been teaching celestial navigation since 2000. It has benefitted from the thoughtful contributions of over 100 students. The aim of Celestial Navigation is to give a sufficient grounding in the subject to determine position at sea using a sextant for fixes on the sun, moon, stars and planets. Furthermore, the material presented will prepare a reader who wishes to pursue a Celestial Navigation Certificate through self-study. The subject requires some comfort with the basic concepts of navigation, but the prospective navigator only needs to know how to add and subtract either times or angles. Lucid and well-paced, Celestial Navigation starts with fundamentals and definitions which ensure that a motivated student need not bring anything more to the table than his or her willingness to master the subject. Richly illustrated, it includes a chapter with more than forty pages of review exercises covering all topics. The cleverness of many of the concepts, explained here, will bring about great intellectual joy and satisfaction. Whether you are a recreational sailor or an individual pursuing professional certification as a navigator, Celestial Navigation will teach you what you need to know.

Many books on celestial navigation take shortcuts in explaining concepts; incorrect diagrams and discussion are often used for the sake of moving the student along quickly. This book tells the true story-and the whole story. It conveys celestial navigation concepts clearly and in the shortest possible time.It's tailored for navigation in the GPS age-a time of computers, calculators, and web resources. Although it covers all of the traditional methods of 'working a sight, ' the primary thrust is using the (under $10) scientific calculator. By using equations that you key into your calculator, this book guides you toward a better understanding of the concepts of celestial navigation.You will learn novel ways to plot lines of position, ways to check your sextant accurately by star sights, and how to tell what time it is from a moon sight. The many appendices are a treasure of references and explanations of abstract ideas. Celestial Navigation is a crucial skill for the offshore navigator to know, this book provides the shortest path to that knowledge.

These tables were designed for air navigation where weight and space are at a premium, however, they are very popular with sailors too due to the fact that Vol. 1 offers a speedier way to compute stars. Volume 1 contains some stars (whose declinations may be more than 29°) that are pre-selected for optimum viewing and direction. This volume is applicable for an 8 year period, centered on its Epoch date.

Traditional navigation with a sextant, an almanac, and a book of tables is still thriving, even with the availability of accurate, cheap GPS receivers. Batteries sometimes go dead, and electronic devices fail, especially in salt air. Also, it can be satisfying and fun to work out a position and plot it, all on your own - but getting good at it requires some practice.100 problems is a self-contained book of realistic celestial navigation problems, including excerpts of all the necessary Nautical Almanac pages and sight-reduction tables, with answers and explanations.

Hewitt Schlereth is a writer and sailing enthusiast.

Praised by The Practical Sailor as "a first-class piece of work," Susan P. Howell's Practical Celestial Navigation was developed for Mystic Seaport's navigation courses. This third edition, originally published by the Seaport's Planetarium, retains the step-by-step format of the original, along with an abundance of diagrams and practice problems. Practical Celestial Navigation is recommended as a self-instruction text for beginners or for old celestial hands getting back in practice.

The 12th edition of this bestselling book is proof of the success of Mary Blewitt's concise and clear style in explaining a particularly difficult skill, and it has been the bible for many generations of ocean navigators. Since this book was first published, the huge advances in electronic navigation have transported most offshore navigators to a world of press-button convenience. However, there is still a vital need for traditional skills when things go wrong: batteries can fail, aerials go overboard, and electronics have been known to get wet. A bestseller for over 50 years, Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen is a model of simplicity and clarity. The worked examples require only straightforward addition and subtraction, which explains why this book has truly earned its reputation for admirable conciseness and for making a tricky subject easy to understand. 'The "bible" of navigation for generations of yachtsmen... worth its weight in gold' Sailing