The Basic Celestial course provides students the basic knowledge needed to fix their position at sea when completely out of sight of land. The Basic Celestial Endorsement does not require students to learn and master the more cumbersome calculations required in ASA’s existing 107 level Celestial course. (In addition to the basic material covered in the Celestial Endorsement, ASA’s 107 course teaches students how to do sight reductions and navigate with the Moon, planets and stars other than Polaris.)
Students will get hands-on experience with the sextant and learn the fascinating concepts that make celestial navigation possible. We highly recommend this course not only as an important skill set for emergency navigation, but also as a fun learning exercise that will allow you to better understand everyday occurrences such as the changing length of the day throughout the year and why the sun never sets in the summer in most of Greenland.
