NavList:

Gary LaPook wrote:

I always liked to use an astrocompass for swinging and adjusting the steering compass and I have done it for many of my friends on their boats. It is much easier to use than a peloris and works with objects well above the horizon. It is especially easy to use with the sun since you don't have to compute the changing ZNs, the astrocompass takes care of the changing position of the object with just a very little bit of mental arithmetic.

Lu Abel wrote:

George Huxtable wrote:
  

But why not compare the compass reading with the bearing of a
celestial body, particularly one that's low, near the horizon? On
passage, point the bow, or the stern, at a low morning or evening Sun.
Head off course for a moment, if necessary, to do it. Note the time
and the compass reading. Later, work out the Sun azimuth at that
moment, allow for variation, and check the result against your
deviation card. You can keep on doing that job each day as a matter of
routine, as the sailing-ship navigators used to do. On a clear night,
there's a choice of low stars for doing the same thing.
    

Again, a tried and true method -- if one is at sea and there is no haze
or fog and can see low-to-the horizon celestial bodies and there are
enough of them to provide a meaningful deviation table.  Unfortunately,
God doesn't always cooperate...

  

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