Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen

Rating:
Summary: Where Am I?
Review: Having struggled with the arcane mechanics of celestial navigation for the past three years it was an immense relief to discover a tome that could lead me through both theory and practise in less than 80 pages! Ms. Blewitt's matter of fact approach to the complexities of sun and star sight reduction etc. is refreshing indeed. For anyone contemplating offshore navigation of any type, this book is worth a dozen night school courses.

Rating:
Summary: I was plotting my position within days
Review: I thought it was going to take years to learn celestial navigation. After reading Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen I was plotting my position within miles of my known position in just a few days (I was using a plastic sextant Mark 15). The first 22 pages of reading requires a lot of thought and time to absorb the information but after one understands the main concepts the rest of the book becomes easier to follow. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Small book packed with information
Review: I was concerned that such a small book (just over 100 pages) could contain enough information about celestial navigation to make my sextant useful. I shouldn't have been. The book is bypasses hype, lore and commentary and deals strickly with the topic at hand. It can be tough going but the book is written clearly enough so as not to be confusing on such the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but produces questions
Review: Overall, the book does a good job explaining how to navigate by the sun, moon and stars, but it does leave some questions unanswered and makes jumps without explaining how the jumps were made. For example, on page 31 the author writes "Against the LHA of 348 (degrees) we read Hc: 15 (degrees) 16', d60 Z169 (degrees)", but does not tell you why you use row "12" in the table. Is it because 360-348=12? You are left to guess.

Rating:
Summary: Straightforward
Review: This book is exactly what I expected it to be and exactly as advertised. Its short length makes it useful for quick reference. It is clearly written.