190K views · Mar 11, 2016 · 45:54 · 2 HN recommenders · 6 mentions · discussed 2021–2025
A roughly 45-minute vintage US military instructional film that gives a comprehensive overview of celestial navigation, covering sextant use and the theory behind lines of position.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN points to it as an unusually clear teaching film on how celestial navigation works, and as an example of how good old military training material is.
“I love these military training movies, they're so good at teaching complex concepts.”HN comment, 2025
“I love these military training movies, they're so good at teaching complex concepts.”
Really good military training film on celestial navigation
I love these military training movies, they're so good at teaching complex concepts. This one about celestial navigation is really good as well: this video
“This (1960s?) US government produced (45m) video video gives a pretty good overview”
Good overview of celestial navigation from a US government film
> Military solutions will fall back to inertial, celestial or optical guidance, and people using GPS for navigation will at worst show up where they need to be somewhat later than planned. The US Navy re-started celestial navigation a few years ago: * link This (1960s?) US government produced (45m) video video gives a pretty good overview: * this video For those wanting to invest (substantially) more time, the two videos by "Tippecanoe Boats" are slightly rambling at times, but he does lay things out pretty well by the end of it (second is largely examples): * link * link
“They're easy to follow and understand.”
Old military material that is easy to follow and understand
Yeah, what is it about these old military materials that makes them so great? They're easy to follow and understand. Here's an old video about celestial navigation: this video It feels like we've forgotten how to make videos like these.
“As this US Navy video shows”
Geocentric celestial sphere makes sextant navigation mathematically easy
> I'd think that the Earth rotating would be obvious much, much sooner […] How exactly could you tell the difference between one moving reference and another? Einstein eventually showed us that it is not possible. As this US Navy video shows, having the Earth stand still and having the 'celestial sphere' move actually makes celestial navigation using a sextant possible / mathematically easy: * this video / link The Ancients / pre-Moderns concluded that the stars were on one celestial sphere and the wanderers ( planetes in Greek) were on others.
“An old USAF video explaining how the theory works”
Old USAF video on the theory of celestial navigation
Training for this was discontinued, but brought back in 2016: * link Now if only the US (and others) would get their act together and build out a backup system to GNSS. China, for example, has built out an eLoran system: * link An old USAF video explaining how the theory works (it assumes a geocentric worldview: the Earth is the centre of the universe (but it's not flat :)): * this video
“Two US military videos explaining the theory”
US military video on the theory of celestial navigation
> Curious how navigation at night was not possible without expensive equipment, sounds like they were relying only on starts in the morning and evening? As a sibling comment notes, it is possible. There are tables for lunar distance: * link * link * link The planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be used, as well as several dozen planets (lookup tables in an almanac) * link * link Two US military videos explaining the theory (ground points/GP, circle of position, etc ): * USAF: this video * Army: link The USAF has a video because that's how planes used to do navigation outside of radio range—sextants on the ceiling of the cockpit: * link * link
