Vanvaerenbergh M., Ifland P. Line of Position Navigation 2003

Textbook in PDF format

If you have ever tracked the North Star across the night sky or held a sextant in your hand, you can learn more from this fine new study of celestial navigation. This book is a unique, concise resource for the history of navigation techniques that began in the 1840s using the stars to steer a ship -- but are still in use today with modern GPS technology. This authoritative book from Unlimited Publishing LLC includes a complete reprint of the rare first edition Captain Thomas H. Sumner wrote in 1843 to describe his new method for finding a line upon which a ship's position rested. Also included are translations of two articles from the 1870s in which French Naval Capitaine Marcq Saint-Hilaire published his new technique for establishing position using the estimated altitude of the celestial body.
The State of the Navigator's Art at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
Captain Thomas H. Sumner and His Line of Position Method
Marcq Saint-Hilaire and His "Intercept" Method
Sumner's and Saint-Hilaire's Methods in the Twentieth Century
Bibliography
Appendix
A. A New and Accurate Method of Finding a Ship's Position at Sea, by Captain Thomas H. Sumner, 1843, Reprinted
B Part 1. Note on the Determination of Position, by Marcq Saint-Hilaire, Captain of Frigates, 1873
B Part 2. Calculation of the Observed Position, by Marcq Saint-Hilaire, Captain of Frigates, 1875
C. Technical Notes