felton wrote:

I am wrestling with myself as to whether to continue my USPS course
work and sign up for the JN course, which is the first of two courses
dealing with celestial navigation.

What are your sailing/cruising goals? If you are planning on doing any
extended cruising, then you should know as much about navigation as you
can learn (ditto about electricity, engines, etc etc). Knowledge is power!



I have completed all the electives
and through Advanced Piloting, so it is decision time. I have heard
that even the Naval Academy doesn't teach celestial navigating skills
any longer.

This is misleading. Graduating cadets are not expected to navigate ships,
but line officers are. The celestial nav courses were moved to an
appropriate curriculum for post grads, whereas cadets had three or four
other hard courses shoved in.



Is celestial anything more than an interesting exercise these days or
is it worth the effort to learn for any meaningful use?

If it keeps you from being lost at sea after your GPS is either fried,
dropped, or soaked, then clestial skills (even if it is only shooting sun
lines) will bring your butt into port alive.



Ultimately it
comes down to time invested/benefit to learn, like anything else.

At the risk of sounding "lubberly", I just wonder if this is time well
spent these days.

Personally, I count all knowledge as a net gain. YMMV.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King