At Last... A plain-English explanation of Celestial Navigation that any idiot boater can understand - even if he or she is a doctor, lawyer, or other type of college/computer nerd who just doesn't like trying to get it out of a book.
     Includes review of Coastal Piloting technique and then goes on to show the similarities between Coastal Piloting and Celestial Navigation.
     Covers theory and applications.
     The knowledge gained from this program is a natural lead-in to information offered in our other two DVDs on Celestial Navigation, items #303 & #203. And if you want to brush up on your Coastal Piloting skills (using the compass and nautical charts to plot your course), check out our #301 on Coastal Piloting.

A. 3 Basic Rules of Boating are water, people & navigation
B. Similarities between methods of navigation
C. Navigation with Electronics
D. History of Celestial Navigation (the "military secret")

1. Nathaniel Bowditch's methods
2. John Harrison's clock

E. Comparison of Coastal Piloting to Celestial Navigation

II. COASTAL PILOTING REVIEW

A. The Nautical Chart
B. Tools used in Chart Plotting

1. Parallel Rulers
2. Dividers
3. Pencils
4. Hand-Held Compass
5. Binoculars
6. Quartz watch (w/stopwatch function)

C. Landmark Triangulation (the 2-bearing fix)

1. Reciprocal Bearings (using the Compass Rose)
2. Line/s of Position (L.O.P.)

D. Magnetic Variation and Deviation
E. Latitude and Longitude
F. Dead Reckoning

III. INTRODUCTION TO CELESTIAL NAVIGATION

A. Similarity to Coastal Piloting
B. Bringing the Stars down to earth (using a sextant)

1. Geographical Position (GP, or "ground point")
2. the Nautical Almanac: what it is and how to use it

C. Measuring Distances

1. the Nautical Mile
2. Minutes of Arc

D. Determining Zenith Distance

1. the Sextant: what it really measures
2. Using the Horizon

IV. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

A. The NOONSHOT

1. Local Noon (in your time zone)
2. GMT Noon ("Zulu Noon")
3. Local Apparent Noon (LAN) ["High Noon"]
4. the Noonshot Worksheet

B. Sextant Corrections

1. Index (mechanical, sextant/mirror adjustment)
2. Limb (portion of celestial body being sighted)
3. Dip (height of eye above water during sight)
4. Refraction (bending light)
5. Parallax (differences of view)

C. Using the Moon, Planets and 57 Navigational Stars

1. Magnitudes of Stars (brightness)
2. H.O. Pub. 249 (the Air Almanac)
3. Plotting Sheets (making your own -vs- std.)

D. Surprise Ending

V. SUMMARY & trailer: excerpts from some other Navigation DVDs