The Sextant Handbook

Author: Bruce A. Bauer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
Loran and GPS notwithstanding, there will always be a place for the sextant aboard any blue-water boat, if for no other reason than the thrill and mystery of finding one's position on earth by gazing at the heavens. Here is the indispensable reference that should accompany the instrument aboard. Cmdr. Bruce Bauer, a professional navigator and master mariner with the U.S. Merchant Marine, has distilled years of hands-on experience into an eminently readable guide to buying, adjusting, using, and repairing sextants. The Sextant Handbook is dedicated to the premise that electronic navigation devices, while too convenient to disregard, are too vulnerable to rely on exclusively. The book is designed to make beginner and expert alike conversant with this most beautiful and functional of the navigator's tools. Topics include: Assembly and Disassembly Vital Adjustments Avoiding Problems Rough Weather Sightings Oiling and Cleaning Immersion Baths Emergency Silvering Finding and Buying Used Sextants And Much More You'll also find a list of distributors, manufacturers, and dealers worldwide, a discussion of future trends, and numerous helpful hints, including sighting with eyeglasses and using a Rude starfinder. All in a thoroughly revised edition of a book acclaimed by navigation professionals.

Sextant

Author: David Barrie
Publisher: William Collins
ISBN: 9780007516582
Category : Nautical astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In the tradition of Dava Sobel's 'Longitude' comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery - an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world.

The Nautical Sextant

Author: W. J. Morris
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780939837892
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
The Nautical Sextant reveals in pictures, prose, and perspective the experience and knowledge gained by the author from years of acquiring, studying, and restoring sextants from earlier times and from around the world. This fascinating book owes much of its attraction to the expert description and photos of the mechanics of the sextants and their subassemblies. It is also the story of how different manufacturers, in different times and places, solved the same mechanical problems in different ways in order to perfect one of the most accurate mechanical devices ever produced by man. All of this is complemented by an historical overview to the current day, an overview which has never been published until now. The Nautical Sextant will be of particular value not only to navigators, but also to restorers, collectors, students of technology, curators, and sextant dealers. With its bibliography and extensive use of footnotes, this book will certainly become a classic in its field.

The Sextant Handbook

Author: Bruce Bauer
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 9780070052192
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Sextant

Author: David Barrie
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006227936X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
In the tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery—an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world. Since its invention in 1759, a mariner's most prized possession has been the sextant. A navigation tool that measures the angle between a celestial object and the horizon, the sextant allowed sailors to pinpoint their exact location at sea. David Barrie chronicles the sextant's development and shows how it not only saved the lives of navigators in wild and dangerous seas, but played a pivotal role in their ability to map the globe. He synthesizes centuries of seafaring history and the daring sailors who have become legend, including James Cook, Matthew Flinders, Robert Fitz-Roy, Frank Worsley of the Endurance, and Joshua Slocum, the redoubtable old "lunarian" and first single-handed-round-the-world yachtsman. He also recounts his own maiden voyage, and insights gleaned from his experiences as a practiced seaman and navigator. Full of heroism, danger, and excitement, told with an infectious sense of wonder, Sextant offers a new look at a masterful achievement that changed the course of history.

American Practical Navigator

Author: Nathaniel Bowditch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nautical astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 798

Book Description

Wilderness Navigation Handbook

Author: Fred Touche
Publisher: Touche Publishing
ISBN: 097325274X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Book Description
Designed for both land and water use, this comprehensive guide helps unlock the complexity of map and chart reading as it relates to navigation. Beginning with detailed technical descriptions of the tools of navigation—a compass, an altimeter, a GPS system, and a sextant—this handbook shows how to use these tools either individually or in combination with each other to navigate any area. Factors that cause tools and techniques to fail are discussed, such as why an altimeter often shows the wrong elevation, a GPS position is sometimes off track, and the sun often points in an unexpected direction. Twenty-one real-life scenarios provide practical wisdom for even the most intrepid navigator. Specific information on using the moon for directions and the stars for position, measuring boiling water temperature for elevation, map projections, map datums, great circle routes, and the UTM/UPS grid system is included.

The Sextant Handbook

Author: Bruce A. Bauer
Publisher: International Marine Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780070045422
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages :

Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen

Author: Mary Blewitt
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472906764
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Book Description
The 12th edition of this bestselling book is proof of the success of Mary Blewitt's concise and clear style in explaining a particularly difficult skill, and it has been the bible for many generations of ocean navigators. Since this book was first published, the huge advances in electronic navigation have transported most offshore navigators to a world of press-button convenience. However, there is still a vital need for traditional skills when things go wrong: batteries can fail, aerials go overboard, and electronics have been known to get wet. A bestseller for over 50 years, Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen is a model of simplicity and clarity. The worked examples require only straightforward addition and subtraction, which explains why this book has truly earned its reputation for admirable conciseness and for making a tricky subject easy to understand. 'The "bible" of navigation for generations of yachtsmen... worth its weight in gold' Sailing

Celestial Navigation in the GPS Age

Author: John Karl
Publisher: Paradise Cay Publications
ISBN: 9780939837755
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
Many books on celestial navigation take shortcuts in explaining concepts; incorrect diagrams and discussion are often used for the sake of moving the student along quickly. This book tells the true story-and the whole story. It conveys celestial navigation concepts clearly and in the shortest possible time.It's tailored for navigation in the GPS age-a time of computers, calculators, and web resources. Although it covers all of the traditional methods of 'working a sight, ' the primary thrust is using the (under $10) scientific calculator. By using equations that you key into your calculator, this book guides you toward a better understanding of the concepts of celestial navigation.You will learn novel ways to plot lines of position, ways to check your sextant accurately by star sights, and how to tell what time it is from a moon sight. The many appendices are a treasure of references and explanations of abstract ideas. Celestial Navigation is a crucial skill for the offshore navigator to know, this book provides the shortest path to that knowledge.