Navigation

Until quite recently, all ships sailing on the open ocean determined their position using the stars, the Sun, and the planets. A compass and a log (the ship’s speed meter) alone are not sufficient when the distance to coastal reference points becomes large enough.

Position fixing from the stars is, in principle, simple. In textbooks it is presented in great detail, using such a large number of new terms that it becomes difficult to understand what is actually going on. In this text, celestial navigation is explained in a more accessible way.