US Sailing Celestial Navigation
Weekend Course - Friday Evening, Saturday & Sunday
Description
Before GPS age, sailors crossed oceans with a sextant, a clock, and a book of tables, and those skills still work when the electronics don’t. In this course, you’ll learn to find your position using the sun, moon, stars, and planets. It’s a rewarding skill for offshore sailors and passagemakers, and for anyone who wants a navigation backup that never needs batteries.
Over one weekend, you’ll learn the entire process, guided by a US Sailing Certified Instructor using the US Sailing Celestial Navigation curriculum.
During this course, you will:
- Handle, operate, and care for a sextant by taking real sights (weather permitting).
- Calculate sunrise, sunset, twilights and meridian passage using the Nautical Almanac.
- Learn how to pre-plan sights using the sight reduction tables to calculate azimuth and altitude of select navigational stars.
- Reduce sights of the sun, moon, stars, and planets using the Nautical Almanac and supplied work forms.
- Construct chart area of the ocean using a Universal Plotting Sheet.
- Revisit the running fix and its relevance to ocean navigation.
- Plot lines of position and a running fix on a Universal Plotting Sheet
- Fix your position using celestial lines of position and a running fix on a Universal Plotting Sheet and then transfer this fix to a nautical chart.
- Obtain latitude from a noon sun sight and from a Polaris sight.
Schedule
- Friday, 6-9pm: Meet and greet, hands-on time with sextants and practice taking sights (weather permitting)
- Saturday, 8am-5pm
- Sunday, 8am-5pm, including the written exam during the final two hours
Certification and Prerequisite
Students who hold a US Sailing Coastal Navigation certification can earn their US Sailing Celestial Navigation certification by passing the exam. If you don’t have the prerequisite, you’re still welcome to join. You’ll learn the full curriculum and can take the exam to validate your knowledge. The exam is taken without a programmed calculator.
More information on the certification is available on the US Sailing Celestial Navigation page.
Pre-Work
Please plan for about 6-10 hours of online pre-work before the first class. The pre-work will be available in January, and we’ll email you instructions for completing it. This early preparation lets us spend our class time focused on the hands-on practice of sight reduction and plotting.
What’s Included
Each student receives a textbook and access to online reference materials.
What to Bring
Please bring your own plotting tools to class, including the following:
You'll need some school supplies:
- Mechanical pencil
- Big square eraser
- Highlighters (yellow, orange, and pink)
- Notebook
- Calculator
Also bring an iPad or laptop and appropriate outdoor clothing for taking sights outdoors.
Registration and Policies
This is an Adult Education course, and all participants must be at least 16 years of age.
The class will be held in the Liberty Room, on the 3rd floor of the brick building along Key Highway. You'll receive an email on the first day of the class with building entry instructions.
If the course is full, please add yourself to the waitlist. We will contact you if a spot opens up!
A $35 administrative fee applies to all date changes and cancellations. The full cancellation policy is on the FAQ page, located here. Please read carefully, as refunds are not guaranteed for cancellation within 14 days of class start date.
Full payment is required to reserve your spot. Space is limited.
Let us know if you have any questions at info@downtownsailing.org!
