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WinAstro - Celestial Navigation on your PC

WinAstro Home

Taking a sight on Captain Cook's Endeavour

WinAstro Software

WinAstro takes the tedium of sight reducion calculations out of astro navigation (also known as celestial navigation). You can use WinAstro to plan your sight, then take your fix with your sextant, and in seconds have a Line of Position (LOP) calculated, without the need for any almanacs or tables.

WinAstro lets you enjoy the satrisfaction of astro navigation without the need to buy annual sight reduction tables or to get bogged down in tedious arithmetic. You do the skilled part of using the sextant, and the computer carries out all the celestial navigation calculations for you.

Why Astro Navigation?

In these days of GPS, you may ask yourself why would anyone still want to use a sextant. There are two reasons. First, GPS is not 100% reliable. From time to time there are system failures (normally due to a satellite failing or transmitting incorrect data), or there may be problems with your system on board - the antenna or unit could fail, or be subject to problems such as electrical interference. In these situations it is good to have a fall-back navigation system that you can use, and the benefit of a sextant is that it is totally independent of any other system.

Secondly, it is enjoyable. There is a great satisfaction to be had by using the sextant to take a signt on the sun, moon, a planet or a star, and then using this to calculate your position.

WinAstro and Ocean Racing
At first sight WinAstro may appear to be totally irrelevant to ocean racers such as Open 60s or entrants into the Volvo race. But these boats all use a sextant as a backup to their GPS, and many of the navigators like WinAstro's simplicity and ease of use.

Astro in the Ocean Yachtmaster
Astro navigation is a significant and essential part of the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean syllabus, coming up both in the written and the oral exams. Why not use WinAstro to check your manual sight calculations, as well as using it for non-exam situations?

WinAstro now with Planetarium Software
WinAstro is now supplied with a separate planetarium program, Stellarium, that lets you see the sky at night from your location, and identify the stars, planets and constellations. This helps you identify the body you want to take a sight on, and more generally to identify all the objects in the sky - a great way to make those night watches more interesting!

WinAstro and the North East Passage
Adrian Flanagan spent 405 days at sea circumnavigating the world on his yacht Barabbas, going from Hamble down to Cape Horn, then up the Pacific to Alaska, and then across the top of Russia and back home. Amongst his navigation tools he carried WinAstro to help with his celestial navigation. See more details of Adrian's expedition at www.alphaglobalex.com.

Save Money by Buying WinAstro!
If you already navigate with a sextant, you will be used to spending at least £15 a year on an almanac such as Reed's Astro Navigation Tables or the NP321 Star Almanac. Buy a copy of WinAstro and within two years it will have paid for itself, as there is no need to buy the almanacs any more..

Cassens & PLath sextant
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