ASA 117 CELESTIAL NAVIGATION ENDORSEMENT
About the course…
This basic celestial navigation class teaches the theory and practice behind determining latitude and longitude at sea. During this course you will learn to use the sextant to find your position offshore using a noon site. We will learn how to “shoot” the sun and do the corrections to get the actual sun angle, and then factor in declination to calculate latitude as the sun passes overhead. Next we will learn how to take the time of local noon and figure out your longitude. With that you can cross oceans and navigate with use of a sextant. Upon completion of this course you can take ASA 108 offshore class
Experienced and novice celestial navigators alike will enjoy this simple method that does not depend on sight reduction tables and yields latitude and longitude directly without plotting.
Become enthralled by the enchantment and adventure of determining the latitude using the same method as the Vikings and ancient Hawaiians. This course is a great introduction to the satisfaction of navigating celestially without the rigors of ASA 107, and will prove useful in the event you lose your GPS while under way, out of site of land.
By the end of this course you will be able too…
1. Convert between standard time and zone time to GMT/UT in either direction
2. Calculate the zone time at a given longitude
3. Determine the times of sunrise, sunset and civil twilight for a vessel’s position
4. Describe and identify the parts, principals and operation of a traditional sextant
5. Determine altitudes of the Sun and Polaris by a traditional sextant
6. Obtain Latitude and Longitude at noon (LAN) by applying the sextant corrections for conversions of the raw sextant altitudes (hs) of the Sun to the true celestial altitudes (HO) of the Sun
7. Determine the vessel’s latitude and Estimated Position (EP) at morning and evening twilight by means of the altitude Polaris
8. Plot latitudes and EPs on a chart
About The Course:
- Students will register for three 7 hour days
- Each class has a minimum of three students and a maximum of five
- $750 per person