Book Review: Celestial Navigation for the Clueless

Okay, in this case I’ll probably have to two reviews.  I received the Kindle Edition of Celestial Navigation for the Clueless, by Jeremy Bernal, for Christmas.  I don’t yet have a sextant to practice with, or the almanacs, but I’ve read through the book and it’s awesome!  First, I think it’s just the right amount of information for a geek like myself, and yet it’s very approachable for non-geeks.  Second, Jeremy Bernal is freaking hilarious.

I first heard about this book by listening to the Furled Sails podcast #59 (which seems to no longer be updated), in which they interviewed Jeremy about this book.  It’s an interesting interview to be sure but the book is where it’s at.  The explanations are really well done and the illustrations are very clear.   Even though I have not been able to put any of this to the test, I do have a much clearer understanding of how celestial navigation actually works and why it works.

Once I get my sextant (anyone have a recommendation for a good one? I’m considering the Davis Mark 15 due to cost) I’ll go through this book again and put it all in practice.  I’ll update with another review after that.

Again, I read this on my iPad with Kindle Reader and that was just fine.  The downside is that there are all sorts of useful tables and forms printed in the book that you really can’t use from the electronic versions.  Jeremy provides access to all these forms on his website (scroll to the bottom) though so you can just download them and print to your heart’s content.  I actually think downloading and printing is better than copying out of a book so the Kindle Edition is more than adequate for the job.  One thing I may find is that using the Kindle Reader while also trying to get a sight with the sextant may prove to be more difficult than having a printed book, but I’ll see how that goes.

Honestly, this book is so cheap, you could buy the paperback and the Kindle Edition and still not spend much more than most Kindle books by themselves.

By the way, there are some really good stories in the Furled Sails podcasts, you might want to check them out.