Look beyond the chartplotter and learn to find your position by reading the sky.

ASA 107 Celestial Navigation is an advanced course for sailors who want to move beyond electronic navigation and understand one of the oldest and most rewarding skills in seamanship. Using the sun, moon, stars and planets, you’ll learn how mariners have crossed oceans for centuries — and why these traditional skills still matter today.

Through classroom instruction, guided calculations and practical sextant work, you’ll learn how celestial observations are taken, corrected, reduced and converted into lines of position. You’ll practice working with time, using the Nautical Almanac, plotting celestial fixes and understanding how the apparent motion of celestial bodies relates to your position on the earth.

Celestial navigation is not just a backup to GPS. It is a discipline that sharpens your awareness, builds confidence and connects you to the art of ocean sailing in a way no screen ever can. Along the way, we’ll also discuss how attentive mariners use natural observations such as light, clouds, swell patterns, direction and time to build a broader sense of where they are and what is happening around the vessel.

This course is not about abandoning modern electronics. It is about developing the knowledge and confidence to understand your position independently, verify what electronic systems are telling you and maintain a dependable navigational backup for offshore sailing.

What You’ll Learn

Throughout the course, you’ll learn how to:

• Understand the basic principles of the celestial sphere
• Identify navigational stars, planets and other useful celestial bodies
• Understand how time, longitude and celestial observations are connected
• Use Coordinated Universal Time and maintain accurate sight records
• Identify the parts of a sextant and explain how the instrument works
• Check and correct common sextant errors
• Take accurate sextant sights
• Apply the necessary corrections to observed altitude
• Use the Nautical Almanac and sight-reduction resources
• Reduce celestial observations through calculation
• Convert observations into lines of position
• Plot celestial lines of position and determine a fix
• Calculate latitude using a meridian passage or noon sight
• Use multiple observations to improve the accuracy of a position
• Evaluate potential errors and the reliability of a celestial fix
• Incorporate celestial navigation into offshore voyage planning
• Use celestial navigation as a backup to electronic systems
• Recognize how selected natural observations can improve situational awareness at sea

Weather permitting, students will also have opportunities to practice taking sights outdoors and apply classroom concepts using actual observations.

Prerequisites

Students should hold ASA 105 Coastal Navigation

Students should be comfortable reading nautical charts, plotting positions and courses, and completing basic navigation calculations. Previous experience using a sextant is not required.

What’s Included

Course tuition includes:

• Four days of live, in-person instruction held over two weekends
• ASA 107 Celestial Navigation instruction
• ASA 107 textbook and course materials
• 2027 Nautical Almanac
• Sight Reduction Forms
• Guided celestial-navigation calculations and plotting exercises
• Hands-on sextant instruction and practice
• Use of sextants and applicable navigation tools during class
• ASA 107 examination
• ASA 107 certification upon successful completion of the course requirements

When

• Saturday, April 10: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
• Sunday, April 11: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
• Saturday, April 17: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
• Sunday, April 18: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Location:

To be announced in Milwaukee, WI

Course Tuition

$1,397 per student

Celestial navigation requires patience, practice and a willingness to look beyond the screen. In return, it offers something deeply rewarding: the ability to use time, mathematics and the sky to find your position anywhere in the world.

Learn the calculations. Take the sights. Discover a more connected way to navigate.