Compiled Manuals - Download Section
This section gives an overview of the downloadable documents and program packages.
The documents are formatted as 'ready-to-print' PDF files. PDF
files can be viewed and printed e.g. with the free tools xpdf or
Acrobat Reader. Below are also some notes on how to obtain the
manuals into a A5-format book form, which is more practical to use
than a simple A4 or Letter printout of these documents.
The complete source codes of the programs used to generate the
listed documents can also be downloaded. These programs are written is
C and come with short 'README' files and verified 'Make-files' for easy
compilation on Linux/UNIX platforms.
Documents
Nautical Almanac:
contains ephemerides for Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - also
including 'planet maps', Moon Phases and predictions for Lunar Eclipses.
The Nautical Almanac comes in 5 parts so pick the appropriate parts for
downloading:
The Nautical Almanacs are also available in a booklet format.
In order to obtain the booklet, print the PDF-file double sided, fold each page and paste the
folded edges of the stacked pages together (see also below):
Nautical Almanac for selected Stars:
for more advanced Celestial Navigators also the data on a set of selected stars is available.
It contains the coordinates of the "First-Point-of-Aries" and of 60 bright stars. Also
included is a set of star maps that can be helpful for better orientation in the twilight sky.
This data is supplied as an extra manual, in order to keep things simpler for those who want to
navigate only with the main celestial bodies; the Sun, Moon and Planets.
Interpolation Tables:
for interpolation of the tabulated data of the Nautical Almanac or Sight
Reduction Tables:
CN_intp.pdf (80 Kbyte)
Correction Tables for Sextant Altitudes:
corrections for dip, refraction and parallax effect:
CN_corr.pdf (60 Kbyte)
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Sight Reduction Tables (Ageton Tables):
these tables are designed for Sight Reduction based on
the divided navigational triangle.
The advantage of these tables is that they are very compact
and allow a Sight Reduction based directly on the Assumed Position.
The disadvantage is that some overhead for the calculation is required
and that the accuracy for some situations may not be sufficient:
AgetonTables.pdf (310 Kbyte)
These tables are also available in a booklet format.
In order to obtain the booklet, print the PDF-file double sided, fold each page and glue the
folded edges of all pages together (see also below):
AgetonTables_book-ds.pdf (380 Kbyte)
Sight Reduction Tables (Lookup Tables):
these tables allow a Sight Reduction by simple lookup tables without
any further calculations involved. The disadvantage is that it cannot be
performed directly on the Assumed Position (instead an intermediate
position close to the Assumed Position must be chosen) and that these
tables cannot be compiled in a compact form.
These Sight Reduction Tables are issued in 14 Volumes. Each Volume covers
a latitude range of 10° and is compiled for 'Declination same name to
Latitude' and 'Declination contrary name to Latitude'.
Worksheets
- Ws_Alt.pdf: Worksheet for
Altitude intercept method and obtaining a Line-of-Position.
- Ws_SiRed_Tb.pdf: Workscheme for
Sight-Reduction using Altitude-Azimut Tables.
- Ws_SiRed_Ag.pdf: Workscheme for
Sight-Reduction using the method of Ageton.
- Ws_SiRed_By.pdf: Workscheme for
Sight-Reduction using the method of Bygrave.
- Mercator Plotting Sheets:
Chart templates with Mercator grid for mapping astronomical Lines-of-Position
(available for Latitude 0° to 69°).
Programs for generating Almanacs and Tables
Programm Archiv:
The compressed (gzip) "tar" archiv - or "tarball" - contains all the source codes and
'Makefiles' needed to compile the different programs used to generate the Almanac and
different Tables on a UNIX platform.
The codes have been successfully compiled under SunOS and Linux.
CN_code.tgz (840 Kbyte)
See also "Notes on the C programs used to calculate
the Ephemerides" for more information on how to prepare the JPL Ephemerides, which
are also needed for the generation of the Nautical Almanac.
These programs all generate 'Postscripts' documents, which can be printed
directly on a 'Postscript printer' or they can be converted (manually)
with e.g. ghostscript into PDF format (see the included scripts and README files).
Notes on printable Manuals
The downloadable Almanacs, Tables and Manuals are formatted in PDF.
The simplest way to obtain a bookform from these documents is to print them
out double-sided and mount the pages in some commercially available document
holder. This way a bookform in A4/letter size is obtained.
A more practical A5-sized bookform can be obtained by printing the manuals
double-sided with two document pages on each side of the A4-format printer paper.
The following drawing indicates the printing order of 4 successive manual pages:
front back
+-----------------+ +-----------------+
| : | | : |
| : | | : |
| page 4 : page 1 | | page 2 : page 3 |
| : | | : |
| : | | : |
+-----------------+ +-----------------+
now fold "page 2" onto "page 3"
/---------+ ---------+
/ : | : |
/ : | : |
/ : page 3 | : page 1 |
/ 2 : | : |
| : | : |
| /--------+ ---------+
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Each of these pages must be folded in order to obtain one new bookform page.
The complete printed and folded manual pages must then be agglutinated
as a paperback book.
For the Nautical Almanac, the "resorted" manual ready for printing as described
in the above scheme is available from the document list at the beginning of this page.
For the other manuals, a special printer post-processing driver is required
to obtain the "two-pages-on-one-side" printing format.
If no suitable printer driver is available, the program source codes may be compiled.
These programs will generate the manuals in a postscript format, which can be
subsequently formatted in bookform by the "awk"-based script in the directory
"scripts" included in the software package CN_code
(See also "Notes on the C programs used to calculate
the Ephemerides").
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