NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: suggestion for a satisfactory celnav narrative
From: Courtney Thomas
Date: 2005 Jun 3, 12:35 -0500
From: Courtney Thomas
Date: 2005 Jun 3, 12:35 -0500
Thank you Susan. Hope you will participate should the necessary ingredients be forthcoming to nail this project together for this list. Cordially, Courtney On Fri, 2005-06-03 at 11:00, Susan Johnson wrote: > My husband and I have been giving seminars (5 to 7 sessions) on > Celestial Navigation a couple of times a year for the past 5 years > (with mixed results). Unfortunately, most attendees want to know how > to do everything without expending any study, practice or thinking > time are looking for a "cookbook" Celestial Nav. We have the > students bring their books and sextants to class and we attempt to > present an overview that will (1) make it easier for them to go back > to the book and understand the text and learn more and (2) allow them > to use the Davis celestial Nav forms ... fill in the blanks.... and > "voila" ... here's what you have.... > > Our class (Celestial Aggravation) sylabus was as follows: > > I Introduction > Tools - pencil, eraser, maneuvering board, sextant, stop watch, > chronometer, dividers, etc... > Basic navigation - Lines of Position, Fixes, Running Fixes, etc. > Terminology - Latitude, Declination, Longitude, Equation of > Time, Poles (geographic, magnetic, compass, celestial), GMT, GHA, LHA, > Geographical Position, Height of Eye, Dip, Parallax, etc. > > II The Sextant > Parts of and comparisons > How to Use > Errors and how to test and correct for > Theories on how often to take shots, best methods, averaging, > graphing, etc. > > III The Almanac - > What information is available > How to read (interpolation) > Time and Longitude > Predicting local noon, sunrise, sunset > > IV Practical > Go to Imperial Beach pier where there is access to sun shot > from 1 hr before noon until sunset. (we live on the Pacific ocean). > Take a series of "morning" shots, "noon" shots, "afternoon" shots, > and if the moon's available - a series of moon shots. > > VI Computation (this frequently stretches over a couple of > sessions) > Using HO 229 and/or HO 249 work out the shots taken during > the Practical and plot our position. For this, we do a "noon" shot, a > "morning" shot and an "afternoon" shot. > > During a 6 session course, we do sample Moon and Start problems. > > Preparing for this class I have found the following to be useful: > > My celestial nav links: http://home.pacbell.net/sohle/appendc.htm > > Books: > > In 1975, I used Reed's Almanac w/ versine tables to successfully > navigate a sailboat from England to Madeira, through the Carri bean, > to Florida with sextant and short-wave radio. > > Practical Celestial Navigation by Susan P. Howell > > Celestial Navigation for Yachstmen by Mary Blewitt > > One Day Celestial Navigation by Otis S. Brown > > Dutton's and Bowditch > > Hope this is helpful.... > Susan Johnson