Pub229, Sight Reduction Tables for Marine Navigation


Book Description

The Sight Reduction Tables for Marine Navigation (Pub 229) is published in six volumes, each of which contains two-eight degree zones of latitude with a one-degree overlap between volumes. They are designed to facilitate the practice of celestial navigation at sea. The tables are primarily used with the intercept method of sight reduction by entering arguments of latitude, declination, and local hour angle and obtaining tabulated altitudes and azimuth angles. The tables are prepared and published by NIMA on an as-needed basis.




Celestial Navigation in the GPS Age


Book Description

Many books on celestial navigation take shortcuts in explaining concepts; incorrect diagrams and discussion are often used for the sake of moving the student along quickly. This book tells the true story-and the whole story. It conveys celestial navigation concepts clearly and in the shortest possible time.It's tailored for navigation in the GPS age-a time of computers, calculators, and web resources. Although it covers all of the traditional methods of 'working a sight, ' the primary thrust is using the (under $10) scientific calculator. By using equations that you key into your calculator, this book guides you toward a better understanding of the concepts of celestial navigation.You will learn novel ways to plot lines of position, ways to check your sextant accurately by star sights, and how to tell what time it is from a moon sight. The many appendices are a treasure of references and explanations of abstract ideas. Celestial Navigation is a crucial skill for the offshore navigator to know, this book provides the shortest path to that knowledge.




American Practical Navigator


Book Description










Radar and ARPA Manual


Book Description

Radar and ARPA Manual focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of electronic navigation. The manual first discusses basic radar principles, including principles of range and bearing measurements and picture orientation and presentation. The text then looks at the operational principles of radar systems. Function of units; aerial, receiver, and display principles; transmitter principles; and sitting of units on board ships are discussed. The book also describes target detection, Automatic Radar Plotting Aids (ARPA), and operational controls of radar systems, and then discusses radar plotting. Errors associated with the true-motion presentation; accuracy and errors of manual plotting; radar plotting aids; and regulations for preventing collisions at seas as applied to radar and ARPA are described. The book also underscores the accuracy and errors of ARPA. The test scenarios; errors generated in the radar installation; classification of ARPA error sources; and errors in displayed data and interpretation are explained. The manual is a good source of information for readers wanting to study electronic navigation.




Hawaii by Sextant: An In-Depth Exercise in Celestial Navigation Using Real Sextant Sights and Logbook Entries


Book Description

In the spirit of early Bowditch editions, we offer navigation details of a full ocean passage as an excellent way to learn the ropes of practical celestial navigation. With your own tables and plotting sheets, you can analyze 224 timed sextant sights of sun, moon, stars, and planets to obtain 26 position fi xes to fi nd your way along a 2,800-nmi voyage lasting 17 days. Solutions are provided by computation, workforms, and detailed plots using universal plotting sheets. After completing this passage you will be prepared to navigate by celestial navigation on your own, whether you need to or choose to. Also includes notes on optimizing sight analysis, hurricane tracking, DR error analysis, ocean currents, and use of visible light ranges for nighttime arrivals.




Celestial Navigation Exercises for Class and Home study


Book Description

About the Manual Celestial Navigation Exercises for Class and Home Study was designed to facilitate the work of instructors using the free PowerPoint slide presentation available at CelestialNavigationBook.com. This exercise manual, available in hard copy and in PDF format for tablets, reproduces the questions posed at regular intervals throughout the slide presentation; it provides the work-forms guiding the calculations, and the solutions. Students taking a course from an instructor who follows the slide presentation will normally have the associated course book Celestial Navigation using the Sight Reduction Tables Pub. No. 249. In order to facilitate the download process, the free version of the exercise manual (available for download from CelestialNavigationBook.com), includes neither the Almanac nor the Sight Reduction Tables required for the calculations because these tables are identical to the ones in the course book. This complete version of the exercise manual, with all the required data tables in the appendix, will thus be useful mostly to navigators who do not have the course book but wish to practice on their own, as well as to students who follow the presentation and have the course book but do not wish to download and print 140 pages of questions and answers.