NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Paul Dolkas
Date: 2015 Dec 21, 09:12 -0800
Lee-
A really good way to start is to get “Celestial Navigation for the Clueless” by Jeremy Bernal. It goes over all the important stuff without immediately engulfing you in a lot of mathematics. (It starts off with the noon shot by the way, Gary). It will then take you through the traditional way of figuring things out using the charts in the nautical tables, which you can skim through if you want to use a calculator or computer/phone app. HIGHLY recommended.
Paul Dolkas
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Gary LaPook
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 12:15 AM
To: paul@dolkas.net
Subject: [NavList] Re: Help for beginner
Heretic, don't confuse the beginner, those types of ideas are for those of us who are skilled in arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Let him learn the orthodoxy first before you lead him astray, off to the dark side.
gl
From: Paul Dolkas <NoReply_Dolkas@fer3.com>
To: garylapook---.net
Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2015 11:35 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Help for beginner
Well, not to confuse things, but a noon shot is the one time of day when you CAN determine your latitude AND longitude. That’s why it’s so special. The height of the sun tells you the latitude, and the time of the local “noon” tells you the longitude. The former is determined much more accurately than the latter, but there are a few tricks that have been discussed on this site to help you estimate the local noon time to within 30 seconds or so. That may not be accurate enough for some, but it’s better than nothing.
Paul Dolkas
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Gary LaPook
Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2015 9:35 PM
To: paul{at}dolkas.net
Subject: [NavList] Re: Help for beginner
Well, you can't find your position by a noon shot, you can only determine your latitude with a noon sight, not your longitude. You can determine your position (if you are not moving) by taking a sun sight in the morning and then one in the afternoon, these two shots will provide a latitude and a longitude. You have a lot to learn and i don't mean that in a bad way, a lot of interesting things to learn.
Here is a link to a WW2 flight navigation manual that explains celestial navigation. (Don't be confused by the use of the bubble sextant in airplanes, the same methods are used with a marine sextant.
Here is a link to the current Navy navigation manual.
And a link to the current tables used for celestial navigation.
You'll need an almanac, download it here for free:
You can check you computations here:
You are embarking on a an intersting quest, welcome aboard.
gl
