Upcoming Events

Modern Celestial ONE: Sextants & Sun Sights Winter 2021: Register  Jan 25, 26, 27: Pacific session This is not your grandparents' celestial navigation! A fast-paced introduction to celestial navigation from a 21st century perspective employing streamlined, modern methods. Celestial navigation stands as the only autonomous backup to GPS and electronic navigation, and it is a tradition that connects us with maritime history. Modern Celestial ONE is a complete course in basic celestial navigation for the modern world. With everything you learn in…

Celestial Navigation in the Age of Sail Winter 2021: Register Jan 30, 31: Atlantic session A fast-paced introductory workshop in the history and the actual techniques of celestial navigation as it was practiced aboard American vessels in the Age of Sail. We'll learn how to take sights and work calculations, especially as done aboard Mystic Seaport Museum's premier exhibit vessel, the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Examining original logbooks and navigational calculations from its voyages, we'll apply these same methods to modern navigation.…

Celestial Navigation in the Age of Sail Winter 2021: Register Feb 1, 2, 3: Pacific session A fast-paced introductory workshop in the history and the actual techniques of celestial navigation as it was practiced aboard American vessels in the Age of Sail. We'll learn how to take sights and work calculations, especially as done aboard Mystic Seaport Museum's premier exhibit vessel, the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Examining original logbooks and navigational calculations from its voyages, we'll apply these same methods to modern…

Modern Celestial TWO: Position Fixes & Star Sights Winter 2021: Register Feb 6, 7: Atlantic session This is not your grandparents' celestial navigation! We focus on celestial for the 21st century, applying traditional sextant sights to modern ocean sailing. In Modern Celestial TWO we continue directly on the modern sight analysis from Modern Celestial ONE using streamlined, modern algorithms, and we learn how to find general position fixes from the Sun and also star sights under all conditions. We cross lines of…

Modern Celestial TWO: Position Fixes & Star Sights Winter 2021: Register  Feb 8, 9, 10: Pacific session This is not your grandparents' celestial navigation! We focus on celestial for the 21st century, applying traditional sextant sights to modern ocean sailing. In Modern Celestial TWO we continue directly on the modern sight analysis from Modern Celestial ONE using streamlined, modern algorithms, and we learn how to find general position fixes from the Sun and also star sights under all conditions. We cross lines…

Lunars: Finding Longitude by Lunar Distances Winter 2021: Register Feb 13, 14: Atlantic session   An intermediate-level class in the famous method of finding longitude by observing the Moon's angular separation from the Sun and bright stars. Mystic Seaport Museum's class in "lunars" has been the only class offered on the topic of lunars anywhere on Earth. Lunars were widely used at sea in the early 19th century in the era before chronometers became common. Observing with a fine sextant, navigators used…

Lunars: Finding Longitude by Lunar Distances Winter 2021: Register Feb 15, 16, 17: Pacific session An intermediate-level class in the famous method of finding longitude by observing the Moon's angular separation from the Sun and bright stars. Mystic Seaport Museum's class in "lunars" has been the only class offered on the topic of lunars anywhere on Earth. Lunars were widely used at sea in the early 19th century in the era before chronometers became common. Observing with a fine sextant, navigators used…

Traditional Celestial Navigation Winter 2021: Register Feb 27, 28: Atlantic session A fast-paced introduction to standard celestial navigation as it was practiced in the latter half of the 20th century, before the introduction of electronic tools like calculators and other computing devices. Pure paper and pencil methods using tables like H.O.229 and H.O.249 and three-star plots for a fix by the "intercept method" (also known as the Marcq St. Hilaire method). Details of the modern Nautical Almanac are covered, too. This workshop is ideal…