NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Just getting started
From: Greg R_
Date: 2007 Jan 17, 15:10 -0800
>
> I am just getting started in Celestial as my wife and I plan on doing
> some blue water cruising in about 3 yrs. Currently we are in st. Louis
> and sail our Catalina 27 on Carlyle. I am not sure if this is the righ
> place for a beginner to be judging from the topics I have looked
> through. I currently am working through Tom Tursi's ASA 106 book as
> well as "A Star to Steer Her By" Is this a place where I can ask
> beginner questionsas I look to learn this discipline? I am by no means
> a math wiz or astro physicist.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
>
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From: Greg R_
Date: 2007 Jan 17, 15:10 -0800
Hi Gary, and
welcome to the list.
> I am not sure if this is the righ place for
a beginner
> to be judging from the topics I have
looked
> through.
> through.
I'd say you've landed on probably one of the best
places on the 'Net for discussing celnav topics. And while the list members
don't always necessarily agree with each other, I think you'll find that people
treat each other with respect and contrary opinions are welcomed and discussed
objectively without personal attacks.
> I currently am working through Tom Tursi's
ASA 106 book as
> well as "A Star to Steer Her By"
> well as "A Star to Steer Her By"
To your list I'd also add Mary Blewitt's
"Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen", (the late) Susan Howell's "Practical
Celestial Navigation", and Tom Cunliffe's "Ocean Sailing" (which I was pleased
to find also includes an in-color version of his fine "Celestial Navigation - A
Yachtmaster's Guide" book). Arthur A. Birney's "Sun Sight Navigation" is good
for a quick (and brief) introduction to the topic.
And once you start getting up on the celnav curve
I'd also recommend Leonard Gray's "100 Problems in Celestial Navigation" to
practice with, maybe supplemented with some of the "How To With A Calculator"
type books if you want to go that route.
There's lots of other fine books out there but I
don't want to overload you from the get-go... ;-) I've noticed that
the various author's all seem to take a different approach to the subject, and
I've found that it's really helpful (to me, at least) to have several different
"hooks" to hang this stuff on.
> Is this a place where I can ask beginner
questions as I look
> to learn this discipline?
You bet. :-)
> I am by no means a math wiz or astro
physicist.
No need for that... while a
math/science/astronomy background is definitely helpful, if you can add and/or
subtract a short list of figures that's pretty much all the math you need to
know.
And while I'd highly recommend knowing how to do
it the "old-fashioned" way as an emergency backup (i.e. with no electronic aids
- just a sextant, timepiece, almanac, sight-reduction tables, and plotting
sheets), I think you'll find that calculators/computers/etc. have made the
sight-reduction chores a trivial matter of just entering the right data and
reading off the results.
Good luck, have fun, welcome to the list, and
feel free to post questions as needed. :-)
--
GregR
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary" <gary.graul@bunge.com>
To: "NavList" <NavList@fer3.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 11:49
AM
Subject: [NavList 2078] Just getting
started
> I am just getting started in Celestial as my wife and I plan on doing
> some blue water cruising in about 3 yrs. Currently we are in st. Louis
> and sail our Catalina 27 on Carlyle. I am not sure if this is the righ
> place for a beginner to be judging from the topics I have looked
> through. I currently am working through Tom Tursi's ASA 106 book as
> well as "A Star to Steer Her By" Is this a place where I can ask
> beginner questionsas I look to learn this discipline? I am by no means
> a math wiz or astro physicist.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
>
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
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