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    Re: Celestial navigation for pilots
    From: David Pike
    Date: 2024 Oct 24, 09:24 -0700

    MikeG you wrote:  "Hi folks - Curious if anyone could recommend any books, videos, or other resources that are good tutorials (ideally from scratch) for celestial navigation oriented towards pilots? Most of what I can find online is, as you would expect, for nautical applications. Thanks!

    The answer as usual is “It all depends”.  Will you be flying solo or dual?  How much space do you have? Will you have an autopilot?  How well can you see out.  I mention this because the practicalities of taking the shot are likely to be more of a problem than learning the maths.  If you’re in a multi-crewed aircraft, it shouldn’t be a problem so long as you have a reasonable view out.  Any book on basic celestial for yachtspersons e.g. Mary Blewitt, or Tom Cunliffe would be close enough.  Incidentally the dip tables work up to a considerable height of eye. If you’re hoping to do it in a small, not very stable, light aircraft without an autopilot, then first choice should be Francis Chichester’s ‘Alone over the Tasman Sea’.  If undamaged, the book should  also include his chart, but it can be a bit inky. 
    You get a better copy of the charts in Arthur J Hughes ‘History of Air Navigation’, but check it’s still there facing page 55, because it can be easily torn out.  Other than growing a third hand, the technique is to set the value you expect to see on the sextant; take a quick look; and estimate how far off you are by comparing it to the semi-diameter of the Sun or Moon.  You need to get as much pre-calculated and plotted on your chart as possible before you take off.  When Chichester mentions 'sextant' and 'box' together, it's now generally believed that he's not talking about a box for his sextant, but that he was using a 'box sextant' which is much smaller than a normal marine sextant and which you can look up online.  However, I ought to warn you that if you’re contemplating trying this in busy airspace, you’re probably breaking the law, because you should be keeping a good lookout at all times.  DaveP

       
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