Celestial Navigation: A Practical Guide to Knowing Where You Are

While many books on celestial navigation insist this age-old art is needed only when electronics fail, Berson uses a unique approach that allows boaters to combine both the modern and the traditional. No other books do that.

Celestial navigation, in all its forms, is nearly as old as mankind. Anyone who can master its intricacies stands at the end of a long line of master navigators that is centuries old—an expert among many who would be lost with electronics. David Berson, a columnist for Ocean Navigator magazine and an instructor at both the Ocean Navigator School of Seamanship and onboard the training schooner Ocean Star, offers here an approach that is refreshing, unique, and sure to attract a new generation of readers looking to demystify this essential art for sailors.

Through his hands-on coursework Berson has developed a practical and learnable method of teaching that has appealed to a new generation of students. He will share his proven method here for the first time. In Celestial Navigation, as he does in his popular column and classes, Berson simplifies the math that so often frightens and deters potential students. Chapters include:

• The Concept of the Celestial Sphere
• Back to the Almanac
• Local Hour Angle
• Assumed Position
• The Sextant: The Perfect Tool for the Job
• More on Sight Reduction
• The Noon Sight
• Formula for Noon Sight
• Definitions
• And more!

Berson takes the same approach with his writing that he does with his classes and columns, informal true-life anecdotes that entertain as well as educate. To Berson, celestial navigation is personal and valuable. Anyone reading this book will catch his contagious enthusiasm.

“And when learning celestial navigation, you do not have to be a mathematician or an astronomer, and yet you will feel confident that you will reach your destination when you are on that open ocean voyage. Once started there are many refinements that may be added, if you wish, but with the basics David has presented in this volume, you will enjoy the satisfaction it gives when you launch your vessel from the dock and go to sea with confidence (and it also will supply a great subject for small talk at cocktail parties).”—Captain Eben Whitcomb

David Berson holds a 400-ton Merchant Marine Master’s License and has operated sailing and power vessels for more than 25 years. He is a contributing editor to Ocean Navigator magazine, and challenges readers every month in a popular column that offers a celestial navigation problem woven into a seafaring story. He has captained well-known sailing ships such as Petrel, Pioneer, Harvey Gamage, and Ocean Star, and has been the sea chantey man at South Street Seaport. He lives in Greenport, New York.