You know it is a good video when at the end you say out loud "WOW that was helpful" and no one else is in the room. Thank you for the video.

Of the hundreds of sailing channels out there, this is consistently one of the most useful. Thanks guys

It is humbling to note that, with respect to longitude, every 4 second error in establishing the exact time of Local Apparent Noon (meridian passage) would equate to a 1 nautical mile error. Also, the higher your latitude the more difficult it is to precisely nail down Local Apparent Noon based on the sun's exact time of maximum altitude. Of course, out at sea during long passages, the precision we expect and enjoy from GPS really isn't necessary. Adding celestial navigation to ones repertoire of sailing skills, can greatly expand ones 'cone of vision' and enhance the safety and enjoyment of any passage. Looking forward to your next installment of this navigation series.👍

This is a good and gentle nudge of an intro to celestial navigation. Judging the moment when the sun is on your meridian is tricky but can be done albeit some margin of error but in an ocean crossing it is as good as gold knowing it helps. Ancient mariners did it and so can we. It really feel wholesomely nice how we are part of such a long wonderful tradition at sea.

This is fantastic! I didn't realize just how easy it was to get the lat/long. Looking forward to the next lesson!

THANK YOU Finally someone knows how to explain these type of things I’m 66 years old and still learning thank you however I’m not sure I really wanna know where I’m at but thank you for helping me find out

Very Helpful with Dyscalculia this was the most helpful intro vid I have seen of Celest nav. Thanks so much. Jim Rodgers

Awesome job again, Herby! You provided a simple, easy to comprehend explanation on the subject (as you usually do). I think more folks will be willing to learn more rather than feel intimidated using your introductory approach. 👍👍👍

I am beginning to work on celestial navigation as I move from dinghy's, racing cats, and racing keelboats to cruising. This was so informative and helpful. I look forward to the next installment.

Navigation has always been my thing, I started learning in Boy Scouts and continued learning . My goal was to be Radio/Navigation in the NAVY. Nice refresher course.

I just completed the rya celestial nav certificate course this is still helpful. 👍💯

Sailed at night from St Malo, north to The Needles Isle of White. Just put the North Star on the top of the mast from the helm position. By daybreak we were right on course. Great video looking forward to the series. Many thanks

Thanks, that made it so easy. I might even have a go at practicing the ancient mariners’ black art

That is the best explanation of finding the North Star that I have heard, thanks

Thank you! a very complete and simple explanation :) I want to be able to do this...good sextants arent cheap either!

Great Video and looking forward to the rest in the series. Makes the basics just so easy, and in the middle of an ocean you really don't need to know your exact position. When you get closer to land you will usually find landmarks/lighthouse to give you a better fix. Always good as a backup if GPS fails, as are paper maps.

Thank you SO MUCH for this clear and concise introduction to celestial navigation. Best I have seen yet. I (believe that) I have an innate propensity to look at the sky and say "THAT is the North Star." But, not many are as blessed as I appear to be and - hey, I might be wrong! And I hope your wet batteries et. al: turn out to be less bad than we all fear - that was a really ominous episode, the music was great. Thank you both.

This is awesome info. Thank you

Thank you for an interesting video. Your methods were great.

You should do a series on this topic. This is so interesting and very helpful.

Always wanted to learn more about this fading art!

This is really cool and useful information! thank you

You are a great teacher!!!

Awesome and simple! Thanks

Thank you so much it helped me so much!

Thank you

It is mind boggling to think that our ancestors figured all of this out. I hope that man doesn't lose this technology with GPS now so cheap and accessible.

Celestial navigation is basically GPS before electronics came into existence! Great video, thanks!

Great post my friend. I'm always learning something valuable here for my own future adventures ✨️ ✨️ ✨️

Really good. Thanks!

Herby you are a fountain of knowledge, now can I remember lol

Hey guys I have been watching you two for months and am always entertained as well as educated by your videos. You guys put out some amazing content and Herbie, you are the Bomb diddy bomb man..Thank you and at some point very soon I will become a Patron.

Thank you for this easy explanation. Although I use Ursa Major mostly to find Polaris you are absolutely right to use more constellations.

thank you for the awesome videos! they are so well made and really helpful!

Thanks brother you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge

Thanks for this. Bob the Science Guy YT channel has given sextant use several videos and those are very good. Mostly this is in response to Flat Earth numpties! I need to get a sextant and try this. North Star is ONLY good if you are north of the equator!!! Maybe you say that in the vid, watching it now. I just LOVE how FE numpties who have never been south of the equator seem to not understand this at all. When I was in Mombasa, Kenya, it was so interesting to see that the N. star wasn't there.

I love your DIY! Thanks!

Haha loved you comment and timing “all you need is your eyes,sextant and a clock .... pretty easy” I knew I’d enjoy it more if you did the Southern Hemisphere.

Very informative

Professor Herbie, I find this subject so very interesting. I did not realize the importance of having a clock set at UTC, which means one must use an extremely reliable time piece. What type of clock do you use, and have you pre-determined wether the clock runs fast or slow, and by how much. How would you compensate when a clock stops running? Or can star charts and more advanced math answer the question of what time is UTC time compared to your Local Apparent Noon? Old time mariners must have had a method since they did not have clocks. :¬) Webhead USA

Luv it. You R where U is and if U isn't... Your Special. Or as my PoPop used to say, "Injun not lost! WigWom lost! Injun right here!"

Excellent. Thanks for sharing so clearly.

Once again, great explanation!

Great introduktion, Thank you!

Found it!!

Excellent videos. Thank you

Cool, that's amazing

an easier way to find local noon, take a site when its close to noon, note the time, don't change the angle on your sextant, when the sun has peaked and is starting to fall, note the time when you sun has reached the original angle you had on your first mark that remained unchanged, the difference between your two times is your local noon time.

these are some really useful videos, thank you

Thank you. Well explained.

Well explained, thanks.

Some good stuff here for the Northern Hemisphere. We use the Southern Cross down here in the Southern Hemisphere but I am not sure if there is a star like Polaris. Will need to research.

Nice, thank you for useful info if you're sailing in the north Hem, I like your approach experience sharpens your confidence. KISS formula keeping it simple is a war cry in almost everything in thing in life. Southern Hemisphere different star references and Nav tricks are required, no North Star to guide you in the south. What do you suggest?

I really like this. How do you get your exact time.

great explanation!

Hey Herb, how have you been? You should have flagged to the audience that using Polaris is only valid while in the Northern hemisphere.

Great Video!!! May I ask, what Sextant do you recommend? Thanks

some dippers, (most), did have a curved handle, or "bent" as you call it.

Excellent explanation Herbie! I always find it slightly amusing the different names given to those constellations. In the US they are referred to as the Big and Little Dipper. In the UK they are (correctly 😉) called The Great Bear and The Little Bear as the Latin names are Ursa Major and Ursa Minor and were among the 48 constellations named by Ptolemy in the second century AD (you knew that). I'm a bit of an astronomy nerd but a celestial navigation newbie - I don't even have a sextant yet - recommendations please! I assume that once you have calculated your local noon you can then extrapolate that forward to work out your longitude using the time and your boat speed (dead reckoning?)

It would be interesting to see your storm trysail setup on Wisdom. If I remember correctly, your storm trysail "lives" permanently on the mast. How do you store it on the mast when it's not used?

Very 👍

Interestingly Joshua Slocum navigated by the moon in his first ever solo circumnavigation on Spray. ........ complex, it is no longer commonly practiced except for fun.

How do you accurately measure the angle when the boat is moving? or do you just guess what the average angle is at any moment?

Doesn't the earth move in rotation, so the stars don't move, the earth does. But looking at the stars is apparently moving?

Ohhh secret unlisted video. Nice.

What if you're in the equator or on the southern hemisphere and there's no Polaris?

Polaris isn't quite at the pole. It's 3/4 of a minute off. Which works out to something like 50 miles on the ground. One of the most important concepts to keep in mind in navigation is the size of your possible error.

Ahem - a bit oversimplified. Sighting the polar star must be done in the dusk/dawn. In the dark you can't see the horizon and will need a bubble sextant to overcome this problem. Also the polar star is quite dimm. I don't get the meaning of "apparant noon". When the sun is at its highest it is true local noon as we see the sun in real (solar) time. UTC is not solar time but a mean time as in the former expression GMT. The difference is the "equation of time" and can amount to many minutes. As 1 minute in time equals 15 min of arc you can be way off the correct longitude unless correcting for the time eq. This is easily done by a simple addition or subtraction but requires a nautical almanac. Still precision is poor due to the fact, that the sun tends to "hang" at the highest for a "l-o-n-g" time making the decision of meridian time difficult. However, "lucky punches" do happen. Maybe I'm too early as you name the episode "Introduction". Looking fwd to the followings. Cheers from DK.

What happens when you are below the equator and cannot see the north star?

👍👍👍👍👍

👍

What happened to my post?

Great tutorial, but if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, like me, Polaris won't be visible

👍!!!

Or just make a sun dial clock and know exactly when the sun is Directly above you

"Overwhelming and scary"???? Maybe for a 7 year old! I was educated during a time when knowing the sky above was JUST AS IMPORTANT as knowing the Earth below. So, the stars above have been my best "Friends" since I was 10 or so. But now? I have been living in a College Town for 50+years. And I'm constantly surprised by recent University Graduates that don't have the type of sound, foundational education that I'd received before the end of 6th grade! As to the Sky? These "Educated" youths couldn't point out the "Big Dipper", Orion or even the North Star IF THEIR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT! It is all so very sad. This is stuff your average 11 year old Boy Scout knew way back in the 1960's! My oh my have we fallen !

Well done, but it doesn't work for us living in the Southern Hemisphere 😅

The North star has never moved....so the earth is fixed and stationary. The celestials move, and are calculable and predictable!

So the Earth isn't flat

How do you not realise you are taking an angle from a flat baseline? Also Water level tools establish horizontal not curved .. we live on a level stationary plane

Awesome and simple! Thanks

This is really cool and useful information! thank you