The books on the chart table

Everything this course gives you on screen comes, at sea, from a few printed books. The almanac and tables in the course are computed for teaching; aboard, use the official ones. You need:

The Nautical Almanac

A new one each year. GHA and declination of the Sun, Moon, planets and Aries for every hour, the stars’ SHA and declination, the Increments and Corrections pages, the altitude correction tables, the Polaris tables, and twilight and sunrise times. It is what the course’s “Almanac” panel imitates. Sold by nautical booksellers.

Pub. 249 Vol. 2 or Vol. 3

Sight reduction tables for the Sun, Moon, planets and any star within 29° of the equator. Vol. 2 covers latitudes 0° to 40°, Vol. 3 39° to 89°: you need the one for where you sail. They never go out of date. Free as PDFs from NGA’s Maritime Safety Information website; printed copies from nautical booksellers.

Pub. 249 Vol. 1, Selected Stars

For star sights only: seven well-placed stars for every latitude and moment, with Hc and the true bearing ready worked. A new edition every five years (the current one is for epoch 2025). Optional, but it makes twilight star fixes much quicker.

Bowditch

The American Practical Navigator, NGA Pub. No. 9: the reference book of navigation, free as a PDF from NGA. You do not work sights from it; you look things up in it.

Pub. 249 was designed for aircraft, with the Air Almanac. It works just as well with the Nautical Almanac, which is what sailors use: the almanac gives GHA to a tenth of a minute, and you choose the assumed position so that LHA comes out a whole degree, exactly as in the course.

Which book for which sight