Celestial Navigation? Forget it!

[sailaway21]

My friend Camaraderie has engaged in the internet no-no of expressing a sense of humour. While I would not be willing to challenge his navigational skills I would, all humour aside, mention that within the joking around he may have given somewhat short-shrift to his acquisition of those skills.

He has, perhaps, given the impression that jumping right to the GPS solution is the proper route to go. I am at risk of seeming like an old mussell to insist that the new sailor learn it as I learned it, ignoring the advances of the last twenty five years. That is surely not my intent. The above posts indicate what I believe to be a much more prudent way of becoming a navigator. The approach of the Polynesians, Egyptians, and Bowditch himself have much to recommend. Examine nature around you and become extremely conscious of how it helps you to pilot your vessel. Become well versed in how the most rudimentary navigational tools are used. In an era where 50% of the populace does NOT realize the sun comes up in the east each and every day, to start from a more advanced point is foolhardy.

Extra batteries are no band-aid for ignorance.

I frankly find the idea that an understanding of variation and deviation on the magnetic compass to be needlessly complex, stunning. Abraham Lincoln said, "things should be kept as simple as possible, but no simpler". This approach to navigation smacks of the same attitude that would see no use for the tying of a bowline since we buy our lines with the eye spliced in already.

The above posters have presented, to my mind, a reasonable and graduated approach to celestial navigation. And, in fairness to Cam and others, I could hardly expect anyone to achieve the level of skill that I have with a sextant when, I myself, would not have spent that much time refining the skill were it not part of my occupation.

As mentioned above, the motion of the sun through the heavens is the single most observable celestial event to the navigator. To not have even a rudimentary knowledge of what it is telling you is not very prudent. To advise against the acquisition of that knowledge is something more.

There is a certain minimum of knowledge required for lake sailing. There is a certain minimum for coastal sailing, near offshore sailing, and true offshore sailing. We should all be able to agree to some extent what those minimums are. I would hold that a grasp of certain fundamentals is essential to conducting each type of sailing safely and, to eliminate those fundamentals as archaic, does no service to the novice. There is no greater danger, to himself or others, than the man who naively thinks he knows what he is doing.

[sailingdog]

Unfortunately, the ease and apparent precision of GPS has allowed many new sailors to slack on the more traditional coastal pilotage skills. GPS is just one of many aids to navigation... and IMHO, the more aids and methods you have in your navigator's tool kit, the happier and safer your voyages will be.

[Tea-Rex]

i learned celestial navigation when i was 13, far from the ocean.
my dad was a master mariner running copper ore from africa to europe. on a fine summer day he visiting my older brother who had just moved.
dad was shooting the sun from the balcony with a bucket of water as artifical horizon. when i arrived, he had just announced the street-map as 2' or 3' off. my brother contested it.
normally, the map would have been all the proof i'd need that dad was wrong. but i was impressed with my dad's confidence in his findings. that triggered interest into what he was doing. well, and maybe there was some element of prooving my brother wrong.
anyway, dad and i spent the afternoon shooting the sun and angles between landmarks like churchtowers and chimneys. with dad teaching me step by step. my own sights, even though they got better from hour to hour, weren't good enough to prove one way or another, but it was the closest i felt to my dad since my parents got divorced. maybe ever.

for my 14th birthday my dad gave me a russian sextant, together with almanac and all the tables, many of which i would never be able to use.
i guess i dissapointed dad somewhat when i choose to become a mechanical engineer over a maritime career, tho he never let on.

dad died last november. to his very last day he took his sights, either from his window or the sun terrace of his retirement home.

[Tea-Rex]

sorry, i had to take a break after writing what was supposed to be the introduction.

while i wouldn't even think of going out on the water without my sextant, i prolly wouldn't buy one today. when land is far off, there's usually no need to worry if the GPS is off a couple of miles. with a coast in sight, and landmarks to establish my position, there's no need for either GPS or celestial anyway.

as taught by my dad, i still take my running fixes every couple hours or so. when they not aggree with the GPS i take another. sometimes the GPS seems to be more off from my DR plot than my LOPs, if only a couple miles. well, once GPS put me into the wrong ocean for a few minutes.

dad embraced new technology whenever it became available. a scientific calculator became a permanent part of his nav toolkit when i was still in school. later there was progrmmable calculators, dedicated navigation calculators and lately he did the calculations on his laptop. and yes, he used GPS for fixes as well.
but the nautical almanac was always in reach, should the electronics fail. and sometimes just to fill a bored hour.

"if you can't calculate something by hand, you have no buisness doing it with a machine"
or: "if you can't plot your course by hand, you got no buisness letting a machine do it for you"

unfortunately, that's what is taught today. there's a course on "navigation" that teaches how to use GPS to get from here to there. and incidently, you get a rebate if you buy their gadgeds through them.
makes me think, how many of those "navigators" would be lost without their GPS once the harbor is out of sight.

that's not how i was taught. you use all the sources available to you . i won't judge anyone for preffering GPS over CN. both are valid tools. but if all you know about navigation is how to punch numbers into a machine, you're not qualified.

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by Tea-Rex

that's not how i was taught. you use all the sources available to you . i won't judge anyone for preffering GPS over CN. both are valid tools. but if all you know about navigation is how to punch numbers into a machine, you're not qualified.

I concur. A nice couple of posts, there.

[SEMIJim]

I agree, Tea-Rex. When I was teaching, and, in fact, even today: I will not give a man a fish or tell him the time. I will teach him how to fish or how to build a time-piece. I teach in the same way I learn. But even so, I must admit: The lure of the Dark Side is strong . (It doesn't help, in my case, that I'm both exceedingly computer literate and a gadget fiend.)

Jim

[TShirtCollector]

Originally Posted by Tea-Rex

...dad was shooting the sun from the balcony with a bucket of water as artifical horizon.

How can a "bucket of water" represent the horizon?

[SkywalkerII]

This winter I taught myself Celestial. I was intrigued by the science, art and history. It made me feel connected to the natural world in the same way sailing does. Whether it is a relic of the past, unnecessary, or a wise backup is obviously debatable. I look forward to taking sights this summer and comparing my fix to my GPS chartplotter. I also look forward to star sights, sharing the knowledge of the sky with my children.

While this is probably over the top, many of us on this board sail to save our souls from the boredom and disconnect of daily life. Celestial can also fill this role.

People used to fish to eat. Now they fish for sport, socializing with friends and family, meeting new people. If I want fish for dinner, going to market is alot easier and more reliable, and some days this makes sense. Other days, I'd rather fish.

And by the way, if any of you have a dusty, old sextant lying around, I'm in the market. The cheap repro I bought did it's job as a learning tool. Now I want an instrument of quality.

Skywalker

[tjaldur]

Originally Posted by TShirtCollector

How can a "bucket of water" represent the horizon?

A bucket of water or any reflecting surface for that matter may be used. The principle is explained here:

Artificial Horizon

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by TShirtCollector

How can a "bucket of water" represent the horizon?

You bring the star down to its reflection in the water, but you have to divide the resulting angle in half--since you're actually measuring twice the angle of the object's elevation. Generally using a thicker darker liquid will work better. I've used blackstrap molasses. I've also used motor oil... but the molasses is easier to get rid of.