NavList:

While digging through my CelNav library, I came across the first workshop text and class notes I took on celestial navigation.

It's likely that every NavLister can remember the person and perhaps event that sparked their interest in celestial navigation.

For myself, it was a Mystic Seaport three-day workshop, offered by Don Treworgy. During it, Don introduced the use of sextants, their adjustments, how to take a sight, reference the Nautical Almanac and use HO 229 to reduce it. The workshop culminated with a Day's Work exercise. This involved customizing an universal plot sheet, plotting course/speeds and time-spaced dead reckoning positions. Multiple LOPs were graphed, advanced, intersected. EP/Fix's and other graphics had to be properly annoted. The Work was your final exam to pass the course.

Don was a wonderful instructor. He was the head of the Planetarium at Mystic Seaport, an avid side-walk astronomer promoter and as approachable as anyone could be. The textbook used was "Practical Celestial Navigation" by Susan P. Howell published by Mystic Seaport Museum stores, inc. 1987. [1] 

I'm sure most NavListers could name the person/situation that got them started.

Popko

[1] I understand Howell died in the sinking of a historic bark while crossing the Atlantic. Perhaps Frank Reed, who knew Don well, might know the details.