Over the past few years I have taken all of the Celestial Navigation courses taught by Frank Reed at ReedNavigation.com and I recently repeated Modern CN 1 & 2 just for the pure enjoyment that it brought to me.
My interest in CN started a few years ago as I puzzled over how the stars could be used to find one’s position on the earth. I tried to learn CN through self-study, but I couldn’t make the subject matter interesting and realized that this was not the correct approach. You need a skilled instructor that can guide you through the learning process, and that’s what Frank Reed provides.
In a relatively short period of time I had a solid grounding in CN. Frank has unmatched knowledge of CN. His classes are fun, interesting, and sprinkled with historical context and include as much or as little math as you desire. His visual aids were very helpful and the time spent on discussing how to properly use a sextant to take a sight was beneficial. You will learn how to find stars in the night sky by which to navigate. The downloaded course guide is very concise and includes tables that are valid for 5 years into the future.
You don’t need to be at sea to do CN. I live inland and learned in the class how to do land-based navigation with a sextant, either with a large or small body of water to provide a true horizon, or with no water horizon at all.
Going back 250 years, I understand how CN was practiced through the ages, up to the present time with calculator, equations and tables. Thanks to Frank, I take great satisfaction in knowing that I possess a skill that very few people have. I highly recommend his courses.
Homer R. Smith M.D.
Expert Celestial
Winter / Spring 2026:
Explore the underlying concepts and math of celestial navigation including spherical triangles, azimuth calculations, great circle distance, and other exotic topics. We'll learn refined methods for taking sights and eliminating the smallest errors in sextant observations, and we'll learn all about standard Moon sights. We'll explore the principles behind various methods of sight reduction as well as calculator-based azimuth calculations.
Forward-looking, modern, and calculator-based, this workshop is an excellent sequel to our "Modern Celestial" and "Advanced Celestial" workshops. More history, more science, more math, more navigation!
All workshops: $ 149 per person, per workshopCreated and taught by Frank Reed, celestial navigation and astronomy consultant on the team that found Shackleton's "Endurance" in 2022. Also a recent guest expert in celestial navigation on Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk on The National Geographic Channel.
- Nine hours of class sessions.
- Requirements: A solid background in introductory celestial navigation and familiarity with basic algebra and trigonometry.
If you're registered for an online workshop, you're invited to attend hour-long sextant practical sessions in Rhode Island and Connecticut scheduled as weather and other factors permit. These live, in-person sessions are included in your registration for online classes.
Comments:
Homer Smith wrote: 10👍
Lee Schacter wrote: 2👍
A great course and teacher. Finally got my head around celestial navigation...
Philip M. Sadler wrote: 85👍
What a joyful and stimulating experience to enroll in Frank Reed's class, Celestial Navigation: 19th Century Methods. Frank is a skillful and engaging teacher, able to draw students into this fascinating subject, whether they be novice or experienced. His depth of knowledge is tremendous. Participants get a real taste of what it was like to be aboard a sailing ship of the day. I learned much to enliven my own teaching and decode 19th century ship's logs. It is a rare experience, indeed, to have so much thoughtfulness, enthusiasm, and fun packed into two days. This is the way to learn!
Philip M. Sadler, Ed.D.
F.W. Wright Senior Lecturer in Celestial Navigation
Harvard University Astronomy Department
Cambridge, MA
Philip M. Sadler, Ed.D.
F.W. Wright Senior Lecturer in Celestial Navigation
Harvard University Astronomy Department
Cambridge, MA
