Long Term Almanac 2000-2050: For the Sun and Selected Stars with Concise Sight Reduction Tables, 2nd Edition Paperback – October 1, 2008

My husband got this and is pleased with it.

If you are reading this I assume you are an aficionado of the venerable arts of navigation. No doubt you own a sextant or two, and maybe a chronometer, and a few other antique goodies like I do. But in this day and age these things are no longer necessary for navigation. Not even in emergency situations. Not when everyone has a cell phone with GPS built in. You would be better off finding a solar charger for your cell phone to cope with emergencies than relying on celestial navigation with a sextant and a set of tables. If it gets so bad you can't get any GPS cell phone to work, you are in deep, and you had better be able to figure out how to navigate like the ancient Polynesians.... with no special equipment... which perhaps you already have done because you are a student of the old art or you wouldn't be reading about this almanac.For those of us who still keep the old art alive out of a sense of curiosity or personal enjoyment we need a solution to keeping the necessary data around to reduce our sights. This book is a good step in that direction. It is easy to skip buying a new Nautical Almanac each year just so you can do a handful of practice sights. With this long term almanac you won't have to worry about not having the data on hand.However this almanac's method does allow a certain amount of error to creep in, which is pointed out in the book. So be it. I am happy that someone has gone tot he trouble to create a long term solution, and the errors are small.If you want or really need more precision; or if you are just learning to handle a sextant and want to know that the errors are introduced by you, the operator, not the books, you will have to buy a current nautical almanac and the appropriate sight reduction tables. Hopefully they will continue to publish them.If you just want a book on your shelf that you can pull down now, or next year, or in 2029 to use to practice with or demonstrate your antiques, this book will be plenty. And if you are still of the mind that you figure you might one day have to actually navigate with a sextant on your world voyage, the solutions from this book would be plenty good enough to keep you out of trouble and to find your port.All in all a five star product because it does what it says it does and does so neatly. It addresses a need, and fills that niche. If you own a sextant you should buy one of these almanacs to put next to it, right beside Mary Blewit's "Celestial Navigation for yachtsmen" and your Ageton's tables. You will also be happy to know it isn't any thicker and only slightly taller than Blewitt's book in paperback, since space is always at a premium at sea.PeterIn the time since I wrote this review I have picked up and leared H.O. 208 (Dreisonstok) concise tables and I prefer them to Ageton (H.O.211) Given a choce I'd stick 208 in my kit.

I can't wait to get cracking working with this almanac and it's processes. It seems to be well written and suitable for use offshore where pin point accuracy isn't required. It N is a welcome addition to my CN tool kit.

The sight reduction scheme is easier to use than the scheme presented in the US naval observatory nautical almanac. and well worth the cost of the book

No more yearly almanacs and HO211, etc. Complete through at least 2050, or even 2060, and excellent sight reduction explanations with examples. This is self-contained, so all you really need besides this and a sextant is a good chronometer. Note: only sun and major stars are included, cannot do moon or planets.

Aside from an intellectual interest, celestial navigation has been relegated to a robust backup for offshore position determination. It will never be able to match the precision, speed, and ease use we all enjoy from our GPS units.Celestial is what you need to know in case your GPS fails and you cannot see land. You can't get to your destination unless you know where you are.Kolbe's LTA enables determination of the sun/star positions for navigation until the year 2050 as well as the formulas and tables for sight reduction. it is an ideal reference for both experienced and new celestial navigators, since it does not need annual updating like the traditional Nautical Almanac. This single, compact book, a sextant, a good watch, and a chart are all that is needed to determine your position anywhere on earth, anytime you can see the horizon and sun or stars.If you are new to celestial navigation, buy this instead of the Nautical Almanac and the sight reduction tables HO 229 or HO 249.

It's a book full of tables and numbers. Anyone interested in this stuff probably knows what they're getting themselves into. If you've got a Sextant, all you're interested in is Sight Reduction and are comfortable with using slightly different process then this is the one book to get.@Author: I think the book can be made even smaller by eliminating a lot of the white space and a slightly smaller font. It'd be fantastic if I could store the book in the Sextant box.

We have thousands of dollars invested in our electronic navigation system. But one lighting strike can out all that in a fraction of a second.So we put together an Emergency Navigation Kit for our travels around the Caribbean and this was one of the primary parts of it. Absolutely required if you are going out of view of land.PS. Don't wait until you lose power to find out how to use it. Practise often.