Leave a Review Celestial Navigation
Wow
This app is terrific! It is good to learn the “long way” of plotting your position but once you learn, then this app makes it so much easier and faster. All you need is your sextant and your watch and let the fun begin.18thBrigade
Perfect.
You put your sextant reading and it will give you a line of position. No need for nautical almanacs. But it does show all the variable values so you can double check your own calcs.Brass king
Exceptionally Accurate and easy
This is a terrific app for reducing celestial navigation sights. Easy to use and is exceptionally accurate. You can change the settings to suit your preferences. It will store your sights and allow you to select which ones to plot. I’ve tested it many times against hand calculations and every time and it comes right on the money. I highly recommend this app.Show lessCGrosby
Bug with iPad when using star finder .
Great app but the star finder displays stars for a second then goes blank on my iPad .collop1
Some UI issues
There is evidently a lot of thought and effort that has gone into the math and the mechanics of this app. It definitely has potential to be great. Unfortunately user interface problems detract from its usefulness.
One example. Depending the size of your screen, you might or might not be able to enter latitudes and longitudes. On my iPhone 7, the digits are obscured due to lack of space.Show lessWbrexaidfdmsk
Exactly what is needed…no less, no more
This app has everything that one needs to resolve several sights into a fix. Nothing is missing. There is no clutter of unnecessary “features”. The best app that I’ve seen for celestial navigation.
The inputs are:
* assumed position entered by user or taken from device's GPS chip
* date and time entered by user or taken from device's GPS chip
* celestial body selected by user from a list of sun, moon, planets and stars
* altitude of the celestial body read from sextant entered by user (Hs)
* index error, if any, entered by user
The outputs are:
* actual altitude of the celestial body (Ho)
* calculated altitude of the celestial body body (Hc)
* intercept distance and direction (towards/away)
* azimuth (Zn)
details of the calculation from sextant altitude to observed altitude are shown.
details of calculation from assumed position longitude to LHA of body are shown.
The calculated line of position can be saved to the "Records" and placed on the provided map via a single click.
All calculated lines of position stored in the "Records" tab can be displayed or hidden from the map. This allows each set of sights to be viewed separately without having to delete the previous set of sights.
A "Starfinder" uses the device's GPS and orientation to show each celestial body.
NOTES:
1. By default, the stars are sorted by number...use "Options" -> "Settings" -> "Sort stars alphabetically" to sort by name rather than number.
2. By default, the time is set to local time rather than GMT/UTC.Show lessJonathanBresler
Inexpensive
This is the first CelNav non-free app I have tried. Seems good value for money, I reproduced some sightings from 2018 with success. Be careful with the Index error: to add to the Sextant Altitude a positive quantity you must enter a negative quantity for Index Error!Themos Tsikas
Good for teaching yourself
This app is fantastic if you’re trying to teach yourself celestial navigation with no help. It allows you to check your working and see where you have made mistakes if you’re trying to get good at using tables or a calculator. You can use it to make up sights for you to reduce when you can’t see any celestial bodies, or to practice reducing sights in different locations. The only problem I’ve found is if you convert E longitude into W longitude (>180°W) it crashes the app if you try to use the map function.Show lessBanksey669
Superb software
I’m running this on an iPad 4 Mini and having a blast relearning what I once learned with a calculator and reams of graph paper. Seamless integration of sights, reduction, and plots. I especially appreciate the sight entry, storage, edit, and selection features — well thought out and very handy. Simple and capable, I will be using this for fun and to teach and demonstrate the craft. Thank you for the superb app!Show lessdc in nc
Capable but crashes on iPad
A free app that is fully capable of calculating a line of position directly from a sight. Unfortunately after the first couple of sights the app won’t open anymore and just crashes immediately on startup.ws an de rs do tn et
Developer Response
Dear Customer, the new update should solve this problem. If not, please send a crash report to "celestialnaviagtion@merkel.de". You find the crash report at Settings > Privacy > Analytics > Analytics Data
