NavList:

Nevile:

The U.S. Naval Academy no longer teaches old fashioned Celestial Navigation. As I understand, Celestial Navigation is or was recently still taught to Quartermasters, an enlisted rank. This information is a couple of years old, and comes from a Senior Navy NCO/Instructor I had contact with re inquiries I had made. On the other hand, the U.S. Coast Guard, which is involved with the licensing of Merchant Mariners requires a demonstrated facility wih Celesial Navigation for licensing. Go figure.

Not having a boat and tending toward sea sickness in small boats, my navigation efforts are limited to Am and PM sun shots, standing on the beach, when I can manage getting to the sea shore, along with a few star/planet sights for position finding, and comparison with the numbers that a GPS unit provides. On a god day or evening, my calculated positions are usually within a couple of miles of GPS coordinates, when plotted. I understand that that is not to bad a result. Shooting the sun and moon, when both are visible, provides a nice two body fix.