navigate by the stars.

[mikemasey]

Hi all,
Does anyone know how I can learn how to navigate by the stars? Just at the beginers level will do!
Thanks
Mike.:question:

[gary]

Hi Mike,

You need to buy yourself a second hand sextant, then something like this free
fguide available as a zipped pdf is a good place to start -
http://www.celnav.de/astro.zip

The source web site the document is from is -
http://www.celnav.de/

However, this particular reference provides the actual equations whereas in reality
tables and some calculation are used in a more cookbook approach.
With a programmable calculator, you can even replace the tables.

Books such as this one (I happen to have a copy) are about as simple as it gets (112 pages, big typeface and very light reading) -
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/270902949776?hlp=false

A quick Google for Celestial Navigation will provide a wealth of other, often free, resources.
Some first year university surveying text books will also usually have sections of celestial navigation.

[mikemasey]

Thanks Gary,
Loads of good info and most of it free.
Dont know why I never did that before???
Now to find that sextant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mike.:thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

You used to be able to buy a small box sextant from the chandlers that worked great but I haven't seen one for years. I think most navigators have forgotten how to navigate by the old ways since GPS took over.

You also need an accurate time to get the hour angle for longitude. This was the hardest thing to calculate for the ancient mariners but there are tables to find the time by the stars to take care of the time requirement.

Barry

[jjjnettie]

:) What fun!!!
We did basic navigation at High School. Shame we didn't take it further.