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Celestial Navigation
Home Study
(ASA - 107)

For hundreds of years before the advent of electronic navigational instruments, mariners found their way across oceans using the sun, the moon and the other celestial bodies.  Knowing how to navigate was the difference between the crew and the officers.  The crew might take you "out there" but the navigator brought you back home again.

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Our Celestial Navigation course is designed to give you the theoretical basis and the practical skills to find your location anywhere on the planet, using a sextant, a couple of books (or the electronic copies) and some calculations.  It focuses on the how and why of determining your present estimated location, using your ded reckoning, and then finding lines of positions that can provide your exact locations.  By the end of the course, you will be able to determine the location of the above the planet for the sun, the moon, the four navigational planets and the 57 navigational stars.  You will also learn how to use the Local Apparent Noon and the star Polaris to determine your latitude, knowledge that can be used in emergency situations to provide a rough estimate of your location.

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​Once you have completed the course and feel comfortable in your knowledge, you can take the final exam at home, at your own speed.  After completing the test, you will send it, and your American Sailing logbook, if desired, in a prepaid envelope, directly to Captain Tursi, who will grade it and send it back to you with detailed feedback on anything that you did not quite master.

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Many people ask why they should take a course in "paper charts" when "everyone is going electronic".  The answer is personal, but can be summed up as this - the skills that this course will provide form the basis for all electronic navigation and knowing what is going on "inside the black box" will benefit you if and when you need them.  

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COURSE FEATURES

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  • Course includes Celestial Navigation for Sailors text and Celestial Navigation for Sailors Solutions text

  • Work on your own schedule

  • Expert help available by email with school instructors

  • When ready, test at home

  • All texts and shipping materials provided

  • If desired, upgrade into the next available on-line course for a small upcharge​

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Prerequisites:

  • Coastal Navigation (ASA-105)

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PRICE: $350

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