Celestial Navigation
On-Line Classroom
(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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In this course, taught over five weeks by Captain Tom Tursi, you will learn how to use the plotting tools that sailors have devised over the centuries to plan and maintain their logs and charts.  You don't need a sextant for this course, but Captain Tursi will explain the rudiments of how to adjust and use a sextant.  The class is held over five consecutive Saturday mornings, from 9:00 to 13:00, using a Zoom classroom.  You will be live with Captain Tursi as he explains the material using books that he wrote, which American Sailing uses as their core material.  If you can't make it on a Saturday morning, the class session is recorded and made available to students for the following week, ensuring that you can stay up-to-date despite disruptions in your schedule.

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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.