Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: Just getting started
    From: David F. McCune
    Date: 2007 Jan 18, 00:37 -0800

    Gary:
    
    Welcome to the list and to celestial navigation.  I am an avid long-distance
    solo sailor and use celnav as my primary (indeed my only) offshore
    navigation method.  (I am trying to be the last sailor on earth not to have
    a GPS on my boat.)  Let me assure you that I am neither a math wiz nor an
    astro physicist!  And I learned from "A Star to Steer Her By."
    
    The arithmetic is intimidating to most beginners.  Assuming for the moment
    that you use sight reduction tables, then all there is is VERY simple
    arithmetic.  Trust me, I am mathematically challenged.  I couldn't explain
    trigonometry to you if my life depended on it.  But that's just my point.
    My life HAS depended on my celnav skills any number of times, and though I
    am a mathematical idiot, I am still alive.
    
    There are really only five basic steps:  (1) Figure out the exact GMT of the
    sight; (2) figure out the LHA and declination of the body at that time; (3)
    figure out the actual corrected angle of the body you saw through the
    sextant; (4) look up in the tables the computed angle to that body at your
    assumed position; and (5) plot the line of position based on the angles and
    azimuths you figured out in (4) and (5).
    
    I have reduced thousands of sights over the years.  I can do it on the back
    of an envelope in less than five minutes.  The hard part isn't the sight
    reduction, even though it feels that way to a beginner. The hard part is
    hanging on a tether on the deck of a small sailboat in 20-ft seas and
    getting some celestial body to line up with some approximation of a horizon.
    
    The rewards are immense. I can remember like it was yesterday the first time
    I sailed alone to Hawaii with only a sextant, a watch, a nautical almanac
    and H.O. 249 for navigation.  Mauna Kea appeared over the horizon when and
    where I thought it would.  I felt like I had cracked God's own secret code
    in finding my way there.
    
    My advice to beginners is just to learn the basics at first.  Use one of the
    simple sight reduction methods and one of the workforms, such as the Davis
    workform.  Basically you need to learn to find your way around the Nautical
    Almanac and the sight reduction tables.  Once you've done that a few dozen
    times, your natural curiosity will have you trying to understand WHY it all
    works.
    
    There was a time not long ago (say 20 years) when every small boat sailor
    who crossed an ocean had to learn cel nav.  Those of us who did just wanted
    to make it as easy and as foolproof as possible.  Cel nav was just a
    necessary tool for the voyage, like knowing how to bleed a diesel or tie a
    bowline.  I'm grateful to the experts who invented the tables and almanacs I
    use.  When I'm hunkered down in my nav station after twilight, heeled at 20
    degrees, braced against the thudding of the waves and squinting under the
    red night lights, I'm not interested in trigonometry.  I just want an answer
    to the ancient question of all mariners:  where am I?
    
    Anyway, I hope you can manage to keep your studies simple for now.  Learn
    the mechanics and the most very basic theory.  It's not hard and requires
    only a bit of perseverance.  Once you've done that, you'll be proud of
    yourself.  And if you're like me, you'll want to learn a lot more.  Which is
    where this list comes in.  The members here know more about celestial
    navigation than I ever will.  There is not a question about cel nav that I
    can imagine asking that someone here wouldn't know the answer to.
    
    Good luck and don't forget to get out on your boat and use your sextant!
    
    David
    
    
    
    --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
    To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
    To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
    -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
    
    

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site