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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 ...
A celestial map by the Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit, 1670. A star chart is a celestial map of the night sky with astronomical objects laid out on a grid system. They are used to identify and locate constellations, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets. [1] They have been used for human navigation since time immemorial. [2]
The other two cover the equatorial region of the celestial sphere, from the declination of 30° south to 30° north. The two equatorial charts are mercator projections, one for the eastern hemisphere of the celestial sphere and one for the western hemisphere. Note that unlike familiar maps, east is shown to the left and west is shown to the right.
Two sample pages of the 2002 Nautical Almanac published by the U.S. Naval Observatory. 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.
Celestial cartography, [1] uranography, [2] [3] astrography or star cartography [citation needed] is the aspect of astronomy and branch of cartography concerned with mapping stars, galaxies, and other astronomical objects on the celestial sphere. Measuring the position and light of charted objects requires a variety of instruments and techniques.
The Sydney 'Star Camera' used in the Carte du Ciel project, original publication, 1892. The Carte du Ciel (French pronunciation: [kaʁt dy sjɛl]; literally, 'Map of the Sky') and the Astrographic Catalogue (or Astrographic Chart) were two distinct but connected components of a massive international astronomical project, initiated in the late 19th century, to catalogue and map the positions of ...
Navigation and location of the ship by geopositioning techniques based on the observation of the stars and other celestial bodies. The variables measured to find the location are: the observed angular height of the stars above the horizon , measured with the sextant (formerly with the astrolabe or other instrument), and the time , measured with ...
In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (/ ɪ ˈ f ɛ m ər ɪ s /; pl. ephemerides / ˌ ɛ f ə ˈ m ɛr ɪ ˌ d iː z /; from Latin ephemeris 'diary', from Ancient Greek ἐφημερίς (ephēmerís) 'diary, journal') [1] [2] [3] is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects and artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position ...