![]() ![]() ![]() Her instructor, Daniel Stayton, says that's OK. Like many of the others in the class, she uses GPS to navigate her daily life. "I mean, obviously I heard about using stars to navigate in the old days," she says, "but I never thought I'd be using it." Until now, says 20-year-old Audrey Channell, celestial navigation wasn't on her radar. In fact, there has been at least one incident in the past decade when a Navy ship ran aground partly because of problems with the electronic navigation system, investigators say.īack in the classroom at the Naval Academy, the midshipmen finishing up their first course seem a little bewildered. "You know, I would equate it to blindly following the navigation system in your car: If you don't have an understanding of north/south/east/west, or perhaps where you're going, it takes you to places you didn't intend to go," he says. He says the Navy is bringing back celestial navigation to make sure its officers understand the fundamentals. Over the past decade, electronic navigation systems on ships have become easier to use, so less training is required. White, who heads the Navy's training, says there is also a desire to get back to basics. And China may be developing similar capabilities. He thinks the Russians probably have systems to jam the special signals the military uses as well. "You can buy a lot of GPS jammers off the Internet," he says. And right up until the mid-20th century, navigation on the sea was usually done by looking at the heavens.Īlready, jamming has become more common, Weeden says. The ancient Polynesians used stars and constellations to help guide their outrigger canoes across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean. Navigation by the stars dates back millennia. But fears about the security of the Global Positioning System and a desire to return to the basics of naval training are pushing the fleet back toward this ancient method of finding a course across open water. The Navy stopped training its service members to navigate by the stars about a decade ago, focusing instead on electronic navigational systems. Navy as it tries to bring back celestial navigation. ![]() The rest of the class of 20 midshipmen sits stone-faced. Naval Academy.Ī young officer halfheartedly puts up her hand. Daniel Stayton tells his class at the U.S. "Raise your hand if you have ever determined your location on the planet using the stars," Lt. Navy now wants more of its officers proficient in celestial navigation. 2000 Pub.Navigation aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout is done by computer, as is the case on many other ships. He currently resides in Milford, Connecticut. He is also, frequent contributor to Cruising World magazine. ![]() About the Author: Hewitt Schlereth is an accomplished sailor who has written several books on navigation a including Commonsense Coastal Navigation and Latitude and Longitude by Noon Sight. The reader is taken carefully through several examples and situational illustrations, making this a most effective self-teaching guide. Schlereth demonstrates how to take sights by the sun, moon a stars and planets, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each method. The basic process is simple: take, sight with sextant, establish, secondary reference or benchmark sight, compare the two sights and plot the result of the comparison on a chart. In this easy-to-use guide, Hewitt Schlereth explains clearly and concisely how to navigate any stretch of sea using only a hand-held sextant, watch, plotting sheet and a copy of the Nautical Almanac. And despite the proliferation of electronic navigational devices, celestial navigation remains an essential tool for those who do not wish to be caught short when modern technology fails. By Hewitt Schlereth, Practical considerations aside, there is something soul-satisfying about looking to the sky to plot one's course. ![]()
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