I found this book because I was a little rusty on my trig and most celestial navigation texts will just throw the PZX equation (and others) at you without breaking down what's actually being done with it on a mathematical level...it's just kind of treated like a magical black box without any discussion, and I'd rather have a complete understanding of what I'm doing and why. Having an application-specific approach also makes it a lot easier to learn.
I'm using it with Norie's Nautical Tables, which has the log tables and a whole lot else:
Any other recommendations for getting into celestial navigation? I've used a sextant a few times and would like to purchase one but am aware that's only the hardware-side of things. Do the books you mentioned above provide sufficient tabulation for navigation? I sail in the Puget Sound for reference, thank you!
Well you can actually go an easier route, it just depends on whether you want to do it kind of mechanically or want to get intimate with all the workings of it. You can use HO 229/249 sight reduction tables and avoid a lot of fuss. Personally, I'd prefer to know how to calculate everything so I have a deeper understanding of what I'm doing. Plenty of books will walk you through all the steps, especially using the sight reduction tables, but I always walk away feeling like I'm missing something.
Anyway, I was reading Merle B. Turner's Celestial for the Cruising Navigator, before I decided to focus on trig for a while. IMHO, it doesn't explain some of the trigonometric formulas as well as it should, or how they were derived, and I just can't learn that way. It's actually not a bad book, but I did find myself consulting a lot of outside resources (mainly with trig and some astronomy). The main problem with it to me is just not explaining how some formulas were derived. It's more dense than most books, but very informative.
For math, there's the book linked in the previous comment, and I'd also recommend looking at:
- An Introduction to Spherical Trigonometry by J.H. Clough-Smith -- I actually found Trigonometry for Navigating Officers in it's bibliography.
- The Elements of Navigation (1E) by Charles H. Cotter is an all-inclusive navigation book that starts with all the necessary trig in the first few chapters. A WORD OF WARNING THOUGH: I started reading the third edition of this book (revised by Lahiry) and it had so many mistakes in it I threw it out; honestly I'm not sure how it got published. Go on abebooks or biblio and buy the 1E if you're interested. I'm starting to work this book concurrently with Trigonometry for Navigating Officers and it's great so far, if dated (published 1958 IIRC).
For some books I own but haven't really started on in earnest yet,
- Celestial in the GPS Age by John Karl is supposedly an excellent resource, and I believe it even introduces a new method for fixing your position. It also gets into more of the "why".
- Dutton's Nautical Navigation (15E) by Thomas J. Cutler and Celestial Navigation: A Complete Home Study Course by David Burch are both supposed to be good as well as far telling you how to do everything, but don't appear to explain some of the "why", like the azimuth equation.
- A Short Guide to Celestial Navigation by Henning Umland is a great resource, but definitely leans more technical. You can find the PDF here:
Besides that, you'll obviously need a Nautical Almanac for the current year (you can find a PDF online), and you'll probably want a copy of:
- Bowditch (American Practical Navigator). This is the definitive reference for anything navigation, it's published by the USCG and you can also download it for free:
Norie's isn't strictly necessary IMO unless you're doing some serious offshore boating like crossing to Hawai'i. Just use a calculator while you're learning. Learn to use Norie's after you're comfortable and keep it as a backup onboard.
You may also be interested in checking out Starpath, which is based in Seattle, and I believe you can even drop by and talk to somebody who's more knowledgeable than I:
I love book discussions and especially by someone like you (and Keller, who in the dedication to his Pascal book has: "to my father, who taught me the importance of learning, and to my mother, who taught me the importance of not doing it all the time."
Btw, to thank you, I'll share this hidden gem that will help making learning smooth and fun: "Learning & Memory" by W. Wickelgren-- I've seen dozens of books on this but only this walks the walk (the author practices cognitive psychology to make his book easy to learn from, and to remember).
Anytime, and thank you for the rec, I just ordered it. I might also suggest to you "Make It Stick" (by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel) if you are ever in want in another book on pedagogy.
Trigonometry for Navigating Officers by WP Winter
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Trigonometry_for_Naviga...
I found this book because I was a little rusty on my trig and most celestial navigation texts will just throw the PZX equation (and others) at you without breaking down what's actually being done with it on a mathematical level...it's just kind of treated like a magical black box without any discussion, and I'd rather have a complete understanding of what I'm doing and why. Having an application-specific approach also makes it a lot easier to learn.
I'm using it with Norie's Nautical Tables, which has the log tables and a whole lot else:
https://bluewaterweb.com/product/nories-nautical-tables-2025...
I'm sure there are plenty of free PDF's of log tables you can find though.
(I believe they used log tables on boats primarily because it's easier to use than a slide rule when everything is constantly rocking back and forth.)
Any other recommendations for getting into celestial navigation? I've used a sextant a few times and would like to purchase one but am aware that's only the hardware-side of things. Do the books you mentioned above provide sufficient tabulation for navigation? I sail in the Puget Sound for reference, thank you!
Well you can actually go an easier route, it just depends on whether you want to do it kind of mechanically or want to get intimate with all the workings of it. You can use HO 229/249 sight reduction tables and avoid a lot of fuss. Personally, I'd prefer to know how to calculate everything so I have a deeper understanding of what I'm doing. Plenty of books will walk you through all the steps, especially using the sight reduction tables, but I always walk away feeling like I'm missing something.
Anyway, I was reading Merle B. Turner's Celestial for the Cruising Navigator, before I decided to focus on trig for a while. IMHO, it doesn't explain some of the trigonometric formulas as well as it should, or how they were derived, and I just can't learn that way. It's actually not a bad book, but I did find myself consulting a lot of outside resources (mainly with trig and some astronomy). The main problem with it to me is just not explaining how some formulas were derived. It's more dense than most books, but very informative.
For math, there's the book linked in the previous comment, and I'd also recommend looking at:
- An Introduction to Spherical Trigonometry by J.H. Clough-Smith -- I actually found Trigonometry for Navigating Officers in it's bibliography.
- The Elements of Navigation (1E) by Charles H. Cotter is an all-inclusive navigation book that starts with all the necessary trig in the first few chapters. A WORD OF WARNING THOUGH: I started reading the third edition of this book (revised by Lahiry) and it had so many mistakes in it I threw it out; honestly I'm not sure how it got published. Go on abebooks or biblio and buy the 1E if you're interested. I'm starting to work this book concurrently with Trigonometry for Navigating Officers and it's great so far, if dated (published 1958 IIRC).
For some books I own but haven't really started on in earnest yet,
- Celestial in the GPS Age by John Karl is supposedly an excellent resource, and I believe it even introduces a new method for fixing your position. It also gets into more of the "why".
- Dutton's Nautical Navigation (15E) by Thomas J. Cutler and Celestial Navigation: A Complete Home Study Course by David Burch are both supposed to be good as well as far telling you how to do everything, but don't appear to explain some of the "why", like the azimuth equation.
- A Short Guide to Celestial Navigation by Henning Umland is a great resource, but definitely leans more technical. You can find the PDF here:
https://www.celnav.de/page2.htm
Besides that, you'll obviously need a Nautical Almanac for the current year (you can find a PDF online), and you'll probably want a copy of:
- Bowditch (American Practical Navigator). This is the definitive reference for anything navigation, it's published by the USCG and you can also download it for free:
Part 1:
https://thenauticalalmanac.com/2024_Bowditch-_American_Pract...
Part 2:
https://thenauticalalmanac.com/2024_Bowditch-_American_Pract...
You can get a print version from Paradise Cay Publications, it's both parts of Bowditch in a single hardback:
https://www.paracay.com/2024-american-practical-navigator-bo...
Norie's isn't strictly necessary IMO unless you're doing some serious offshore boating like crossing to Hawai'i. Just use a calculator while you're learning. Learn to use Norie's after you're comfortable and keep it as a backup onboard.
You may also be interested in checking out Starpath, which is based in Seattle, and I believe you can even drop by and talk to somebody who's more knowledgeable than I:
https://starpath.com/
They publish the David Burch books, and offer online courses.
Celestaire is another good shop for celnav:
https://www.celestaire.com/
Anyway, this was longer than I intended but I hope this puts you in the right direction!
All that being said, honestly I'd just review trigonometry a little and pick up a copy of Celestial in the GPS Age and fill in the gaps from there.
Sorry, last thing:
https://www.starpath.com/catalog/books/1992.htm
This is a workbook and records the data used for navigation by sextant to Hawai'i. Good for practice.
Thank you very much!
I love book discussions and especially by someone like you (and Keller, who in the dedication to his Pascal book has: "to my father, who taught me the importance of learning, and to my mother, who taught me the importance of not doing it all the time."
Btw, to thank you, I'll share this hidden gem that will help making learning smooth and fun: "Learning & Memory" by W. Wickelgren-- I've seen dozens of books on this but only this walks the walk (the author practices cognitive psychology to make his book easy to learn from, and to remember).
Have a good day,
Eagga
Anytime, and thank you for the rec, I just ordered it. I might also suggest to you "Make It Stick" (by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel) if you are ever in want in another book on pedagogy.
Appreciate it :)