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In reply, I'll explain when I said 'briefly read through it...', I did work
through the book doing and followed the examples, but lacking sufficient
background, looked elsewhere to gain the prerequisite knowledge.  This is
not Mr. Bennett's issue, but mine.  I think the Howell book introduces the
subject in a much better way for the novice, and that's all I'm saying.  So,
if the tables are troublesome, I'm just suggesting another source to help
shed some light.

What it did give me was the desire to understand what he presented in his
tables, and try to understand what was behind them.  By chance,I found a
copy of Ageton's Celestial Navigation, and after studying and learning that
process, Mr. Bennett's book and tables did start to make sense.

It is concise, and like the Ageton book of its' day, will be a very handy
book to have on-board.  For the novice, there is no real substitute for a
good tutor and practical experience, I agree.  However, I began my study of
Celestial Navigation in this cold winter of the Midwest, and looked to
books, and reference sources to increase my theoretical knowledge, to that
end the Howell book served me better for that purpose alone.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Fogg" 
To: 
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: book - the complete on-board celestial navigator


> HGWorks - Phil Guerra wrote:
>
> > First, I'm not a professional navigator, just very interested in
learning
> > all I can about the subject of celestial navigation.  To that end, I
began
> > researching information and collecting books on navigation.  I was drawn
to
> > the book you mentioned for the same reason, inclusion of an almanac for
> > 2003-2007, and hoped that this book would allow me to learn the process
of
> > sight reduction.
> >
> > I received the book, and briefly read through it.  On page 8, the author
> > states "Before studying celestial navigation, the reader must be
conversant
> > with such basic navigational quantitative as latitude, longitude,
azimuth,
> > etc., and be able to plot the passage of a vessel and fix its position
in a
> > coastal situation.
>
> > Well, gee, that means I bought the wrong book, because I thought part of
> > studying a subject included not knowing something about it in the first
> > place.  While I did know the basics regarding latitude, longitude, and
> > azimuth, I am more than a little fuzzy on the etc. and plotting methods.
I
> > thought that this book would clear it up, but I was mistaken.  It is
more a
> > book for an experience navigator.
>
> It has been said that CN is one subject most people find very difficult to
> learn from a book and I think this is broadly true. The assumption with
this
> book is that the user is at least familiar with coastal nav. which
includes
> plotting; essentially advancing a position across a chart or plotting
sheet
> according to direction and speed. The rest you seem to have.
>
> Perhaps 'briefly read through it' has not done it justice. As in an
earlier
> reply to Gerard Mittelstaedt (which has not been delivered to the list,
there
> is a problem here) I think the best way to learn to use the book is to
take it
> a little at a time and work through the examples given. Having done that,
the
> Silicon Sea series (available through the archives of this list) offers
much
> more practice, its a wonderful resource.
>
> On learning CN in general, in the 'good ole days' (which were, of course,
> anything but) essentially uneducated sailors who may have been barely able
to
> write learned to navigate because they had to, and learned by rote, and
did
> manage to find their way about. In these enlightened ( ! ) days, the
emphasis
> is on understanding the process. This does take some mental work, and many
> people (myself included, I determinedly, but perhaps too briefly, read
books
> about CN before taking a course) find this easier in a classroom situation
with
> an instructor to guide the group through the process of learning and take
the
> effort to make clear concepts that can be difficult to grasp.
>
> But having done this, what you need to practise CN is an almanac and a few
> other bits'n'pieces. What I find so great about this book is that
everything
> you need has been put together in a handy format.
>
> There is more in my earlier reply which hopefully will appear at some
time.

   

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