Teaching Celestial Navigation in the Age of GNSS

Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the astounding development of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Celestial navigation has gradually been declining, displaced by the availability of these new, accurate, and easy-to-use electronic systems. Nonetheless, according to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW), deck officers onboard merchant ships must have been trained in the observance of celestial bodies to plot the ship’s position and to calibrate compass error. It is a real challenge in the current context to which lecturers in nautical astronomy can respond through innovation in their teaching methods. A new approach to training students in celestial navigation at the Nautical College of the University of the Basque Country is discussed in this paper. It has already achieved promising results in comparison with the traditional teaching methodology, and is both efficient and effective. The adoption of institutional measures is also proposed to ensure that the competence acquired in the training phase is at all times present throughout professional practice.