How do we get shipʼs

position by star sight ?

These days, there is an enormous amount of

information available on celestial navigation.

Which means there is also a lot of noise to sift

through.

And when you do sift through it, you still have

to answer one question:

How do you apply all of this knowledge

practically on board the ship.

Talking specifically about star sight, there are

tons of resources that deals with the
calculation part.

Be it Longitude by chronometer or intercept

method calculations.

Most of us know all these calculations but

only that much. But how can we use these to
calculate the sight ?

In this post, I will show you step wise

procedure to use the star sight to calculate
your position on board.

Let us start.

Basics of celestial sight

I have covered the basics of the celestial

navigation in a different article. You can read
this article by clicking on here.

And if you have read it you would know that

celestial navigation is based on calculation of
zenith distance and azimuth of the celestial
body.

Zenith distance and altitude of the celestial

body are inter-related. Here is the relation.

Zenith distance + True Altitude = 90 Degrees.

All we want is True altitude of the celestial

body which can be calculated by measuring
the altitude of the celestial body by a sextant
and applying few corrections to the measured
altitude by sextant.

I wonʼt go more deep into the calculations

part. I assume you already know that.

Sextant altitude is measured by bringing the

celestial body on the userʼs visible horizon
and reading the altitude from the sextant.

Here is a video that explains the use of

sextant.

Step 1: Calculate the twilight time

So far so good. For measuring the sextant

altitude two things should be visible.

Celestial body
Horizon

But the issue with the star sight is that, stars

are visible at night and horizon is visible when
there is daylight.

Or, when the horizon is clearly visible, there

arenʼt any stars in the sky and when the stars
are visible, the horizon isnʼt visible.

Then how do we measure the sextant altitude

of the stars?

Nautical twilight is the time when some stars

may be visible and during the hours of twilight
there is still some daylight that horizon is
visible too.

The name “Nautical twilight” is given because

this is the time when mariners can see both
the horizon and stars and is ideal for the star
sight.

But how to know the time for the Nautical

twilight?

The twilight time is given in the nautical

almanac.

In the morning, the period from

complete darkness to the sunrise is divided
into three twilights.

We are interested in the period of Nautical

twilight.

With respect to times mentioned in the

nautical almanac, this would be the period
between the time of “nautical twilight” and
“Civil twilight”.

So for morning star sights, we need to

calculate the nautical twilight time from the
almanac. That would be the time we need to
start looking for the visible stars.

For the evening twilight, here is how the

period from sunset to complete darkness is
divided.

So for evening twilight, can you guess what

time you should start looking for the stars for
star sight?

Or in other words, what is the time for start of

nautical twilight?

Yes, you got it right !!!

Civil twilight time mentioned in the almanac is

the time of “end of civil twilight” and “start of
the nautical twilight”.

For evening star sights, this is the time we

would be interested in.

The twilight time given in the Almanac are

LMT. This need to be converted to the shipʼs
time so that we know at what time (shipʼs
time) will be nautical twilight.

Let us say the DR position is

Latitude: 25 degrees 00 Minutes (North)

Longitude: 070 Degrees 00 Minutes
(East)

Shipʼs Time is: GMT + 5 Hours

Date: 19th January 2018, Evening star sight

From the Nautical Almanac, get the time of

evening civil twilight (start of Nautical twilight)
for 25 degrees North.

You will need to interpolate as the times are

for 20 degrees North and 30 degrees north.
Here is the calculation to calculate civil
twilight time as per the shipʼs time.

So in this case we need to be ready with the

sextant at 1720 Hrs shipʼs time (1320 Hrs
GMT) looking for the stars.

Step 2: Find the information on

available stars

If you see the time period of the nautical

twilight (start and end of nautical twilight)
from the nautical almanac, you would note it
to be less than 30 minutes in most cases.

Ideally we would have around 10 minutes of

the times to take the sextant altitude of the
stars.

If we donʼt know where to look for in the sky,

or which star we are planning to measure the
sextant altitude for, we will never be able to
take the star sight.

In other words, period of nautical twilight is

never enough to look for the stars, identify the
star and measure itʼs sextant altitude.

Remember that we need identify at least three

stars separated perfectly from each other
(close to 120 degrees difference in azimuth)
for a perfect star sight.

So what do we do?

We need to know before hand about

Which stars would be available for star

sight
The stars we plan to use for the star
sight
Approx Azimuth of these stars so that we
know which direction to look for these
stars
Approx altitude of these stars so that we
know how high in the sky to look
for these stars

This is where star finder (NP 323) is used to

find this information.

NP 323 (Star finder) consists of one sheet for

the layout of the stars. This sheet has two
sides, one for Northern hemisphere and other
side for southern hemisphere.

It also consists of transparent templates for

different latitudes of the observer.

The instructions for use of star finder are

clearly given on the star finder sheet.

In a nutshell, here is what we need to do.

Calculate the LHA Aries for the time of

observation. As we discussed we need to take
the star sight at start of Nautical twilight. For
evening sights this is Civil twilight time in the
Almanac.

Choose the transparent template nearest to

the DR latitude. So if our DR latitude is 27
degrees, we need to choose 30 degrees
template.

We need to place the transparent template on

the star finder sheet as per the instructions
above.

The stars inside the web of lines are the stars

that would be visible to you at the time of
nautical twilight.

Now we need to choose the best 3 stars

among these stars.

What do we mean the best stars for star

sight? The criteria is

The star need to a bright star so that it is

easily visible during the twilight, and
The azimuth of the three chosen stars
should form as close equilateral triangle
as possible

Let me explain these two points.

The brightness of the stars is denoted by

different symbols of the stars in the star
finder.

All these stars are visible to the human eye

but considering that there isnʼt complete
darkness during twilight, we must try to
choose the stars with magnitude 2.0 or less
(preferably with magnitude less than 1.0).

Apart from brightness of the stars, we also

need to take into account the azimuth of the
stars.

We do not want to select stars with azimuth

line parallel to the other selected stars.

This is because then the position lines that we

will get from the star sight will be close to
parallel to each other. And that is not good for
getting the position of the ship.

For example, in the below configuration star

Vega and star Altair both are bright stars but
we cannot choose both of these.

This is because the azimuth of the Vega is

220 degrees and azimuth of Altair is 230
degrees. Both of these stars are separated by
only 10 degrees.

If we choose these two stars the position lines

that we will get from these stars will be
separted by only 10 degrees.

So if I have to pick three stars from the below,

I would pick

Arcturus with Azimuth around 105

degrees
Alioth with Azimuth around 160 degrees
Vega with Azimuth around 220 degrees

Apart from azimuth, we also need to note

down the approx altitude of the selected star.

For example in below picture, the approx

altitude of Vega is 55 degrees.

So with the help of star finder (NP 323), we

will be able to choose three stars that we
need for star sight.

Also we will have the approx azimuth and

altitude of these stars.

Step 3: Find the selected stars in the

sky

Now we know the stars we need to star sight

and its location in the sky. So when the
nautical twilight starts, be ready with the
sextant to measure the altitude of the
selected stars as these become visible.

Keep on looking in the direction the azimuth

of the selected star. For example from the
bridge wing gyro repeater, look where is 105
degrees.

The star Arcturus will be visible in this

direction.

But then the question is, how high in the sky