Astro Navigation

Part 1:Introduction History of Astronavigation The Celestial Sphere Altitude and Azimuth LHA and Declination The PZX Triangle Documents Required

Introduction
Celestial Navigation is the art and science of navigating by the stars, sun, moon, and Planets. It is one of the oldest of human arts. The rise of radio and electronic means of finding location, particularly the GPS, based on satellite transmissions can tell us our latitude and longitude within feet in real time. It is no wonder that knowledge of celestial navigation has experienced a decline. So why should anyone study it? If you want reasons, here are a few: Understanding navigation; emergency and back-up Tradition Fun Perspective on life Beautiful !

Astro History-1
The Polynesians -Pacific Islanders- and Arabs were the first of the early great seafaring races to use astronomical observations as an aid to navigation. The Vikings in the North Atlantic also need special mention although they were often hampered by bad weather. All these pioneers noticed that in some parts of the sky the stars do not set but follow circular paths throughout the night. The brightest of them, the Pole Star, seemed to maintain a constant position in the sky. Others followed predictable paths in the sky every night. The early mariners thus could devise a method of defining direction. The horizon was divided into 32 points based on the Pole Star and 15 others which were evenly spaced about the eastern horizon.

Astro History-2
All people, if raised in the appropriate environment, prove capable of learning to speak any language and to think and operate effectively in the context of any culture. Traditional navigators of the Central Caroline Islands provide a case in point. The Carolinian art of navigation developed to meet the needs of ocean voyaging for distances of up to several hundred miles among the tiny islands and atolls of Micronesia. Lacking writing, local navigators have had to commit to memory their knowledge of the stars, sailing directions, seamarks, and how to read the waves and clouds to determine currents and predict weather.

Micronesia

Astro History-3
Traditional Navigation in the Western Pacific

Basic to the entire navigational system is the "star structure," as the navigators call it. Observed near the equator, the stars appear to rotate around the earth on a north-south axis. Some rise and set farther to the north and some farther to the south, and they do so in succession at different times. The "star structure" divides the great circle of the horizon into 32 points where the stars (other than Polaris) for which the points are named are observed to rise and set. These 32 points form a sidereal (star) compass that provides the system of reference for organizing all directional information about winds, currents, ocean swells, and the relative positions of islands, shoals, reefs, and other seamarks. The diametrically opposite points of this compass are seen as connecting in straight lines through a central point. A navigator or any place of reference is considered to be at this central point. Thus, for every compass point one faces, there is a reciprocal point at the back.

Astro Dimensions
ANGLES are used by the celestial navigator to measure azimuth and altitude. The position of the celestial bodies and points on the surface of the earth may be described by angles. Sextant is an instrument that measures angles. Angles are usually measured in degrees, minutes and seconds. The complete circumference has 360. One degree is equivalent to 60 minutes. Seconds of arc are not used in the celestial navigation.

The nautical mile (= 6080 ft) is a unit of DISTANCE that approximates to an arc of one minute on the surface of earth. One minute of longitude is equivalent to one nautical mile only at the Equator. Elsewhere it varies as the cosine of latitude. Another important equivalence is between TIME and degrees of longitude. Since the earth goes one complete turn (360) in 24 hours, each hour corresponds to 15 of longitude or 900 Nautical miles (NM).

The Celestial Sphere

The celestial sphere is a concept used extensively in astro navigation. It is easy to imagine the positions of the heavenly bodies - stars and planets- on the surface of a sphere at infinity. Since they are many light years away their relative movements are insignificant compared to the earths orbit. It is therefore possible for an observer on the Earth to calculate the position by observing the angular relationship with these bodies. The next step would be to establish a co-ordinate system as reference.

The Celestial Sphere

Declination and Hour Angle-1

Small Circle of Declination NCP Specified Celestial Meridian

SCP

Equinoctial

Declination and Hour Angle-2

Celestial Meridian of Body

Positioning the Body in the Plane of a Celestial Meridian

LHA in the Plane of the Equinoctial LHA body = GHA body Long E / W In the case of the stars: LHA star = GHA Aries+ SHA star Long E / W

Altitude and Azimuth System-1

The observers Zenith: If a line is imagined to pass from the centre of the Earth, through the observer and out to the celestial sphere, the point at which it meets the sphere will represent the position of the observer transferred to the celestial sphere. This point is known as the observers zenith. The point diametrically opposite is known as the nadir. The angular relationship between the observers zenith and the body give rise to the second system of coordinates, altitude and azimuth. In this, zenith and nadir are the poles and the equinoctial is replaced by the observers celestial horizon at right angles to the zenith-nadir axis. The zenith-nadir axis is joined by great circles, which are known as vertical circles. The observers vertical circle passes through the NCP and is therefore identical to the OCM. The prime vertical circle is that which cuts the observers vertical circle at right angles.

Altitude and Azimuth System-2

The intersection of OCH and Vertical Circle define the North and South points, which locate the true north and south from the Observer. The prime vertical circle intersects the CH at the east and west points. A body can now be placed by the smaller angle in the plane of its vertical circle measured from the CH towards the zenith, and by the angle in the plane of the CH measured clockwise 0 - 360 from the vertical circle through the body. These co-ordinates are known as Altitude and Azimuth respectively.

Body altitude 50 and azimuth (Zn) 310T

Plane of OCM and OCH

A composite diagram of the celestial sphere can now be constructed to show the relationship between the two co-ordinate systems. If one set of co-ordinates is known together with the observers latitude, the body can be positioned on the celestial sphere and the other two co-ordinates determined. So, if LHA and the declination are known, altitude and azimuth can be determined.

In the plane of OCM

In the plane of OCH

The PZX Triangle

The previous examples showed how to estimate the two unknowns. The same can be obtained by what is called the PZX triangle, formed by the elevated pole, the observers zenith, and the position of the body on the celestial sphere. The three sides of the PZX triangle are: PZ = co-lat ZX = co-alt PX = co-dec ( 90 dec) The three angles are: P = LHA ( or 360 - LHA) Z = Zenith (Zn) or 180 Z or 360- Z X = Position Angle X ( not used)

Documents and Instruments

Documents Air Almanac AP 3270 vol 1 AP 3270 vol 2 Pre-computation Form Mercators Chart Instruments Astro Compass, Bubble Sextant, chronometer, and plotting instruments