Learn Practical Celestial Navigation from an experienced instructor over several sequential episodes.
Practical Celestial Navigation course preview: meet the instructor, what materials and tables are needed, outline of the course. What is covered in the course: celestial theory, sight reduction process for sun-planet-star-moon sights, noon sight (latitude at noon), Latitude by Polaris, plotting of sights, sextant use, a celestial day’s work.
Materials needed for the course:
1) 2021 Nautical Almanac
2) H.O. Pub No. 249 Vol.2, Sight Reduction Table, Latitude 0-40 degrees
3) Universal Plotting Sheets, one pad of 50
4) Plotting tools: Parallel Rulers or equivalent, set of dividers, pencils & erasers
5) Optional: H.O. Pub No. 249 Vol.1, Selected Stars
Where to get materials. Many marine chandleries that sell charts also have these publications, but here are three knowledgeable retailers/catalogues with good online stores:
1) Celestaire: https://www.celestaire.com
2) Landfall Navigation: https://www.landfallnavigation.com
3) Paradise Cay Publications: https://www.paracay.com
Course Episodes (subject to change):
1) Introduction
2) 30,000 foot Overview
3) Celestial Theory and the Celestial Triangle
4) Calculating Local Hour Angle & the Assumed Position
5) The Nautical Almanac, extracting Greenwich Hour Angle & Declination
6) The Sextant, taking a sight, correcting the sight
7) H.O. 249 Sight Reduction Tables, extracting Hc & Zn, calculating the Intercept
8) Plotting the sight, setting up a Universal Plotting Sheet
9) A full Sight Reduction of the Sun from start to finish
10) Latitude at Noon
11) Star sights, pre-calculation of twilight
12) Planet sights
13) Pre-calculating the positions of stars & planets at twilight, organizing your sights
14) Moon sight
15) Latitude by Polaris
16) A celestial day at sea: daily navigation, running fixes, star sight fixes, and more
17) Taking a sextant sight, practical tips, reading the results, purchasing a sextant
18) Miscellaneous topics #1: Longitude at Noon
19) Miscellaneous topics #2: Time Zones & timepieces, Correcting the Compass
20) A Celestial Navigation flow chart
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTI9yC8MV45vlcOBL7w_6dw/playlists
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