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The nautical star is a symbolic star representing the North Star, associated with the sea services of the United States armed forces and with tattoo culture. It is usually rendered as a five-pointed star in dark and light shades counterchanged in a style similar to a compass rose. In Unicode, this symbol is in the dingbats block as U+272F ...
Equatorial stars. The equatorial region of the celestial sphere's eastern hemisphere includes 17 navigational stars from Alpheratz in the constellation Andromeda to Denebola in Leo. It also includes stars from the constellations Cetus, Aries, Taurus, Orion, Canis Major and Minor, Gemini, and Hydra.
Compass rose with the eight principal winds. A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their intermediate points. It is also the term for the graduated ...
Sailors' superstitions. Sailors' superstitions are superstitions particular to sailors or mariners, and which traditionally have been common around the world. Some of these beliefs are popular superstitions, while others are better described as traditions, stories, folklore, tropes, myths, or legends. The origins of many of these superstitions ...
A diagram of a typical nautical sextant, a tool used in celestial navigation to measure the angle between two objects viewed by means of its optical sight. Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the ...
North corresponds to 0°, so east is 90°, south is 180° and west is 270°. The history of the compass started more than 2000 years ago during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). The first compasses were made of lodestone, a naturally magnetized stone of iron, in Han dynasty China. [ 1 ][ 2 ] It was called the "South Pointing Fish" and was ...
Nautical almanac. A nautical almanac is a publication describing the positions of a selection of celestial bodies for the purpose of enabling navigators to use celestial navigation to determine the position of their ship while at sea. The Almanac specifies for each whole hour of the year the position on the Earth's surface (in declination and ...
The positions of the stars helped guide Polynesian voyages. Stars, as opposed to planets, hold fixed celestial positions year-round, changing only their rising time with the seasons. Each star has a specific declination, and can give a bearing for navigation as it rises or sets. Polynesian voyagers would set a heading by a star near the horizon ...