Celestial Navigation In The GPS Age.

Celestial Navigation In The GPS Age

John Karl

Paradise Cay Publications

PO Box 29, Arcata, CA 95518-0029

9780939837755, $24.95 www.paracay.com 1-800736-4509

Global Position Systems have revolutionized the transportation industry, the military, and travel. But nowhere has the impact of GPS been so pervasive as with nautical navigation which was, for five hundred years of sailing the oceans and seas of the world, confined by reading the stars, the compass, and the sextant. Now in an age of computers and satellites, the GPS has become an indispensable navigational tools. "Celestial Navigation In The GPS Age" by physicist, artist, pilot, writer, and sailor John Karl (who has been sailing for 60 years and learned the art of celestial navigation 50 years ago) is a complete and comprehensive instruction manual covering all aspects of navigating with the aid of a GPS. Especially suited to the task of writing such a manual, John Karl has taught celestial navigation workshops at the University of Wisconsin and aboard the 3-masted S/V 'Denis Sullivan', and conducted marine research in the Great Lakes, in the Gulf of California, and has sailed the Pacific ocean, along the East Coast, on the Great Lakes, in the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas. "Celestial Navigation In The GPS Age" beings with an informative historic overview of navigation, the goes on to the specifics of plotting the celestial navigation LOP; the St. Hilaire Method of navigation; sun sight reductions; sights of other celestial bodies; special sights; lunar distance sights; the attitude observations; sextant checks and adjustments; operations at sea; insights from the navigation triangle; and concludes with exercises to reinforce understanding and build confidence. Enhanced with a number of thematically appropriate and specialized appendices, "Celestial Navigation In The GPS Age" is an essential addition to personal, professional, academic, naval, and community library Nautical Studies reference collections and curriculum texts.