Customer Reviews

One Hundred Problems in Celestial Navigation, Second Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am in the process of teaching myself Celestial Navigation. I bought this book to help my learning process by having problems with answers to work through. And therein lies the problem. I applaud Mr. Gray's approach to set up realistice navigation problems. However, only THE ANSWER is given. Here we have a multi-step problem involving many aspects of navigation and by only giving the answer without showing solutions or partial solutions your left twisting in the wind if you didn't come up with the answer. You have no guidance on where you have erred. This has been extremely frustrating. It would have been so easy for the book to have at least included filled out sight redution forms for each problem. This addition would have enabled a "just learning neophyte" to see where his errors were. If your are an accomplished celestial navigator looking for practice or have access to an expert to mentor you than the book would be of value. To the beginner trying to learn the craft it comes up very short....too bad, it could
be so much better. I would have gladly paid more for additonal pages that showed the solution process for the problems.

The book provides excellent problems in celestial navigation, and the final answer, ie longitude and latitude location or "fix", for each problem. The shortcoming is that no explanation is given. The solution to a celestial navigation problem involves more than a few steps, each of which must be done correctly. Providing a complete explanation of every site in each of the 100 problems would be space prohibitive, but somewhat more explanation would make the book more useful to the student of celestial navigation.

The text arrived quickly and in good shape. The material got its arms around the subject very, very nicely; The artwork was outstanding. But I think the presentation could be strenghtened with inclusion of intermediate mathematical steps

Even in a world with accurate and cheap GPS receivers, traditional navigation with a sextant, an almanac, and a book of tables is still an important skill - sometimes batteries go dead or electronic devices fail, especially in salt air! Written by experienced navigator Leonard Gray, 100 Problems In Celestial Navigation: Self Contained - With Answers is a compendium of realistic navigation problems, including excerpts of all required Nautical Almanac pages and sight-reduction tables, complete with answers and explanations. These problems cover all regularly encountered navigation situations, as well as those that are only occasionally used and often forgotten, such as backsight, shooting and unknown body, finding Venus in daylight, and storm avoidance. A superb manual for safely practicing and honing one's navigational skills.

This is a great book if you want to practice the technique of "sight reduction" (calculating your position based on the altitudes of heavenly bodies) without having to do sextant sights of your own. The book is entirely self-contained; meaning you won't need any additional material aside from a pencil, ruler/protractor, calculator and/or scratch paper. Different types of problems are presented in scenario format, including Sun, Moon and Star sights, "running fixes", noon sights, etc. All necessary data is given for each problem and relevant pages from the Nautical Almanac and H.O. 249 are reprinted in the appendices. There is, however, only very brief instruction on how to perform the calculations. I would recommend this book only after the reader has a decent grasp of the concepts involved. A sample sight reduction form and answers to the problems are also given in the appendices. Perfect for keeping those skills sharp!

The problems in the book flow from one sight to the next with different situations like a requirement for a back sight.

The problems are not too involved so study can easily be interrupted. I use the book in conjunction with CelestNav software and enjoy working 2-3 problems before taking a break.