Beginner seeks Sextant Navigation advice - books etc.

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson

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Can anyone recommend a "Beginner's Guide", or easy-t-understand website? Must not be hugely scientific or long-winded, please.
Prompted by the Golden Globe Race thread I have started about trying to learn Sextant/Astro navigation - basics to start with.
I understand the basic operation of a sextant and taking of sun-sights to find latitude, and the very basic calcs for longitude.
I don't need to acquire a sextant and/or the volumes of tables just yet, but wish a guide to explain it all.

Thanks in anticipation, comme d'abitude ;)
 
Have you looked at Tom Cunliffe's book on the subject?

I find it very approachable, but I'm not quite sure what level you're looking for.
 
A more expensive way is the RYA Ocean Theory course, but if, like me, you find the books (and I have several..) difficult, I can recommend it.
Don't believe the filthy lies that there is no maths involved, there most certainly is! Some tricky calculations, and also you have to be very neat at plotting the lines on the plotting charts.
It's probably easy to learn if you are student age, or have it beaten into you in the Navy; but very much harder if you start in middle age, when the brain, mine at least, finds new concepts heavier to hoist on board. (Got there in the end..)
Sometimes, yacht clubs do the course on a not-for-profit basis, which is cheaper than an RYA sea school.
I have several celestial nav books which need a new home, send a message if you like, better they find a good home than gathering dust.
 
Ladybirdgaffcutter said:
A more expensive way is the RYA Ocean Theory course, but if, like me, you find the books (and I have several..) difficult, I can recommend it.
Don't believe the filthy lies that there is no maths involved, there most certainly is! Some tricky calculations, and also you have to be very neat at plotting the lines on the plotting charts.
It's probably easy to learn if you are student age, or have it beaten into you in the Navy; but very much harder if you start in middle age, when the brain, mine at least, finds new concepts heavier to hoist on board. (Got there in the end..)
Sometimes, yacht clubs do the course on a not-for-profit basis, which is cheaper than an RYA sea school.
I have several celestial nav books which need a new home, send a message if you like, better they find a good home than gathering dust.
Click to expand...

What "tricky calculations"?
The workings are all simple arithmetic + looking up information in a marine equivalent of a ready reckoner.
Yes, if you delve deeper, the maths is more complicated, but you don't need any higher maths to reduce a sight & obtain a line of position.
 
"Navigation with Alice" by Frank Debenham is an amusing introduction to the basic principles of celestial navigation. The author is also interesting; he was on Scott's expedition to the Antarctic and became Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge. He also founded the Scott Polar Research Institute, where I worked for about 8 years. He wrote it as a primer when teaching RAF navigators during WW2, but the principles remain the same. The problem with the various "methods" in use is that they tend to obscure what you are actually doing, in the interests of making the sight reduction simple and avoiding some nasty edge-cases.

Of course, the book is long out of print, but I had no trouble obtaining a copy.
 
Get hold of a copy of David Burch's book: 'Celestial Navigation - A Complete Home Study Course'. If you 'shop around' you may find one at a good price. My new copy was half the recommended price when I bought it.

Good luck.
 
Search on YouTube for “Celestial navigation for the cutterman”
Tom Cunliffes books are pretty simple but would not give you much more info than you already have.
The RYA Ocean Nav is ok but really needs to be read in conjunction with an instructor or course to
ensure understanding.
 
There are many good books available as aids to learning celestial navigation.

We all seem to learn things slightly differently to each other, probably hence why there are so many books to choose from.

Personally, I don’t like the Mary Blewit book as my preference is understanding, not just “follow this”’ route. I don’t like template sight reduction forms for the same reason.

The Tom Cunliffe book is good but I think the best book is Ocean Yachtmaster by Pat Langkey-Price and Philip Ouvry, published by Adlard Coles.

Whichever route you ultimately choose, I’m sure you’ll thoroughly enjoy it and obtain immense satisfaction from doing so.
 
I remember Peytons' cartoon of a chap in a boat cabin spotting a book ' The Joy Of Sex ' and furtively getting it out of the shelf - only to find the fiddle rail was hiding ' of Sextants ' :)

I found Mary Blewitts' book hard going, maths does not come naturally to me - the only times I've used my Ebbco sextant were for distance off lighthouses.

If I was going blue water I think a proper YM Ocean course would be best.
 
I have had the great pleasure in encouraging the unenlightened into the practical arts of position from celestial bodies.

By far the favourite handy learning and prompting books are, as mentioned, Tom Cunliffe and also Tim Bartletts guides. Excellent, both and makes understanding straightforward.

As alant has mentioned, forget the Blewitt book, far too over complicated. And I also agree that the maths is easy....a bit of adding up and taking away using air Nav tables and simple pro formas.

Simply remember that the earth stands still and the heavens move around us and you will have cracked it! ;)
 
Well, I asked for it, didn't I?:rolleyes:

To keep my reply short I would just say that higher maths gives me the wobbles; reading and understanding I'm OK at providing it isn't too technical, scientific or cosmic physics!

I'll have a go first with Tom Cunliffe's as I like his style and approach to "things".

I really just want to dip my toe in the water, so to speak, as I don't have any immediate plans for ocean sailing; but challenging the "little grey cells" is I think good for those past the first flush of youth (by a lonnng way!)

Thanks folks, very helpful responses.:encouragement:
 
Robert, I'm starting down the same path. I found "Astro Navigation Made Easy" by Francois Meyrier was quite useful, and http://www.wavetrain.net/techniques-a-tactics/101-celestial-reasoning-quick-a-dirty-noon-sights together with Reed's sextant simplified by Dag Pike. Meyrier's book I found really interesting in explaining the whole "earth's rotation, elliptical orbit and tilt" part; which had sadly (and amazingly) been missed out of my education. It explained quite a bit about the seasons, longer/shorter days and the location of the tropics. I must've been asleep or flicking spitballs during that geography lesson, and can't be the only one wandering around in total ignorance of some of those things?

2019's task is to start taking noon sights, (alongwith ordering a crewmember to "turn the glass and strike the bell" at the start of every new day) to get used to using the sextant, making the adjustments and obtaining a position. (only when sailing though, it looks a bit odd doing it in the office).

May have to look up Tom Cunliffe's book too.

Andrew
 
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