How to Navigate using the Stars: Celestial Navigation

Celestial navigation is the process whereby angular measurements (sights) taken between celestial bodies in the sky and the visible horizon are used to locate one's position on the globe

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• planisphere
• star chart
• navigating using the stars
• north star
• wilderness survival
• bushcraft
• survival
• ray mears
• bear grylls
• les stroud

[TheGreyboss]

what if the star moves diagonally, is there anyway to accurately measure how many degrees it would be?

[PeakSurvival]

@TheGreyboss It is whatever tangent it moves the most on

[lucianmop]

aahhhh fuck, i thought this was about navigation at seas not terrestrial navigation ¬¬ but its great to know this! thanks for sharing by th way

[zytigon]

Matt 2vs2&9 Magi see a star& for reasons best know to the priest who dreamed up the story, thought that it meant a baby Jewish king had been born. So they tried the obvious place for a baby king= the capital of Jerusalem. Herod told the Magi to go 6 miles south down the road to Bethlehem. They didn't need a star to guide them but the author placed one to ensure they didn't miss the road. I think the star was probably called Tinker Bell. Astronomers would have noted constellation & brightness

[Vamchoir]

That would be really hard to accomplish from a boat! *Love this info. Very helpful if you're hiking on dry land or something.*

[CrackNinja]

@LuxrayVillage stand still

[cungnhauvuinhe7114]

what is the percent of success of this method?

[cungnhauvuinhe7114]

NO star

[zkyfengix]

i think it is different in northern or southern of the earth

[LuxrayVillage]

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand if you are supposed to look down your sight while you are walking forward, or if you are supposed to stand still and see which way the star moves. Help please!

[ranger767]

Another easy way to remember how to figure out whether north is left, right, up or down is to look for the first letter in "north" and "left" and they are 2 letters apart to each other. The rest are far apart except "south" and "right" which is one letter close to each other and works too.

[hbkm40]

WAIT A MINUTE! Most stars will rotate around a near fixed point of the North Star (Polaris). So this method is only valid when you look above the degree that matches your latitude. In example, stars move left directly above the North Star, and right directly below the North Star; and yet, we are still looking North. And stars proximal to the North Star will seem to move up or down, yet one would still be looking only a few degrees from of Polaris.

I enjoy these videos, please be reliable.