Might be time to buy a sextant

I’ve never bothered with stars & planets, just Sun-run-Sun. I taught my kids and am now teaching the grandkids. My experience with them is they find the mechanics of taking a sight quite easy and reducing it to obtain a line of position a bit laborious (too used to instant results using an app or a calculator I think). What they have trouble grasping is moving the am sight to intersect the pm one.
 
I’ve never bothered with stars & planets, just Sun-run-Sun. I taught my kids and am now teaching the grandkids. My experience with them is they find the mechanics of taking a sight quite easy and reducing it to obtain a line of position a bit laborious (too used to instant results using an app or a calculator I think). What they have trouble grasping is moving the am sight to intersect the pm one.
Stars are easy. Until Mrs Neptune pulls the curtains!
 
At the risk of drifting into current affairs it is worth noting there may be other reasons we lose GPS signal in the near future...

I've only read up to your comment (#21) so far so someone may have already pointed out that the US Navy requires their Officers to be proficient with celestial navigation.
The Scary, Practical Reason The US Navy Is Once Again Teaching Celestial Navigation

I am (almost) sure I read that airline pilots would have to become proficient too with celestial navigation. (Maybe I am wrong?)
The Reason Some Boeing 737 Cockpits Have Eyebrow Windows
 
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My 14 year old son has just told me the world will end In 2 days.
After doing a google search it seems there is a chance of a huge solar storm knocking out satellites. I'm guessing gps could be wiped out temporarily.
I do have an interest in finding my way with the old ways and hope to buy one soon regardless .
Well I have two Ebbco sextants :cool: which I bought off eBay about 10 years ago for around $20 ea.

Now you've got me going! I just found this YouTube clip
"THE EBBCO PLASTIC SEXTANT" and I plan to view it tonight.:D
 
Well, the world didn't end so, for the time being at least, the Daily Express, inter alia, will have to find some other scenario for their "We're all gonna die" headlines.

If GPS does go down, I have no plans to leave the Channel, so I reckon I could manage without. I'd miss Waze, but I've still got a road atlas and, more importantly, I know how to use it.
 
the US Navy requires their Officers to be proficient with celestial navigation.
It was never dropped from the British and now STCW MN deck officer nav courses. Not sure of current requirements but basic astro was also in the Fishing deck officer exams when I left in 2007. Only problem was that ships/fishing boats were not required to carry sextants, they were regarded as personal property.
 
I've only read up to your comment (#21) so far so someone may have already pointed out that the US Navy requires their Officers to be proficient with celestial navigation.
The Scary, Practical Reason The US Navy Is Once Again Teaching Celestial Navigation

I am (almost) sure I read that airline pilots would have to become proficient too with celestial navigation. (Maybe I am wrong?)
The Reason Some Boeing 737 Cockpits Have Eyebrow Windows
The second statement is completely wrong. Sorry to disappoint you.
Over the last few years many approach aids (NDB and now VOR) have been decommissioned and approaches based purely on GPS are now common place.

And the eyebrow windows are nothing to do with astro. On the Nimrod we carried two navigators and a bubble sextant which fitted into a socket mounted in the cabin roof. Hercs of my era had the same. Civil aircraft of the 50's and 60's could be fitted with the same but no civil aircraft with 2 or 3 man cockpits (including 747 regardless of the article) have a sextant and pilots have never done astro as part of their license.
 
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The second statement is completely wrong. Sorry to disappoint you.
Over the last few years many approach aids (NDB and now VOR) have been decommissioned and approaches based purely on GPS are now common place.

You haven't disappointed me:unsure: I don't know why you would say that? (Did you read the article?)

"The so-called "eyebrow windows" were eliminated from Boeing's cockpit designs in 2004 after their function was made more or less obsolete due to the progress of modern avionics".

That is my understanding .(y)
 
You haven't disappointed me:unsure: I don't know why you would say that? (Did you read the article?)

"The so-called "eyebrow windows" were eliminated from Boeing's cockpit designs in 2004 after their function was made more or less obsolete due to the progress of modern avionics".

That is my understanding .(y)
The article hint's they were for astro. They were visual flying and in many areas of the world visual approaches are less and less common. The yanks still like them though!
 
Well I have two Ebbco sextants :cool: which I bought off eBay about 10 years ago for around $20 ea.

Now you've got me going! I just found this YouTube clip
"THE EBBCO PLASTIC SEXTANT" and I plan to view it tonight.:D
I have an Ebbco, too! I found that,with averaging, the Ebbco should give you a fix within 1 or 2 Nm's. I have moved up to a metal sextant now, because the little plastic telescope wasn't up to doing stars (maybe it was my eyesight) I noticed on the youtube film, the problem with the Ebbco filters. I used two bits of unexposed135mm film to replace the sun filters on mine!
 
Of course GPS satellites can be destroyed by China or Russia these days so the US is developing a new method of navigation.

U.S. Air Force Developing New Nav Technology As A GPS Backup - AVweb
UK too and others I'm sure. Quantum ‘compass’ could allow navigation without relying on satellites | Imperial News | Imperial College London
It's a rather advanced DR system in reality and some way off widespread implementation.


Russia still have an extensive terrestrial based regional long(ish) range navigation system covering their coastal and offshore areas. Older members may remember Loran-C ;)
eLoran or something similar is sure to make an appearance in reality. The cost of doing a British only solution is perhaps excessive. If only we could share with our European friends.
 
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