Questions tagged [navigation]
Questions regarding the process of accurately finding your location, and getting to another place by planning and following a map.
47 questions
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How to tell if two locations have the same longtitude with naked human eyes
As a follow-up to this question, I was wondering about another scenario. Suppose there is a person who has been living for a few years in Mexico at -103 longitude. Then he migrated to Canada and has ...
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How to walk on earth along a line of constant longitude without any technology aid
Assume that we have chosen some particular meridian to traverse on foot in the northern hemisphere. If one could only refer to the night sky, stars, and the sun, how would one be able to move along a ...
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Calculating latitude and longitude from single GNSS constellation
I am trying to find a fast and reliable way to calculate latitude and longitude of an Android smartphone using a single GNSS constellation (For example BeiDou).
What I have done so far:
Collect raw ...
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Does the lowest altitude of a star depend on the latitude?
In my understanding, when the sun rises or sets we consider that its altitude is around $0^\circ$ from the horizon level.
For stars, is it indeed the case that the lowest altitude for a star is also ...
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Calculate approx date that sun's altitude is 60 degrees at a given latitude
I was reading some sort of exercise which asks the following:
If the altitude of the pole star at X location is 53 degrees and
considering that the sun rose earlier the previous day what is the
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Why is Sirius wandering and how do we find it in the long term?
I have recently been getting into astronomy because of the planetary parade.
I just noticed that Sirus is nearly directly above the UTC +0 longitude on the 1st of January. That would make it very ...
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UTC Time, navigation. Why are the time zones not following perfect meridian circles for longitude?
Why are these meridian lines for time not following straight up and down every n (15 deg) from the poles of earth?
Does it have something to do with making time zones easier to understand by country? ...
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Can human body be used to measure angle to celestial objects? Like sextant?
Can the human body be used to measure the angle between a celestial object like the sun or star at dawn/dusk? I was considering using a thumb or finger up to try and duplicate the following picture of ...
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Where in the sky does Oumuamua return closest to a former location?
Oumuamua is apparently a cigar-shaped asteroid that recently passed through the solar system on an unusual orbit, exhibiting unexpected acceleration.
Oumuamua is known to have fairly minimal powers of ...
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Calculate geographical location (latitude, longitude) from horizontal and equatorial coordinates, date and UT
Lets say I found myself in the middle of nowhere with small computer with some sort of offline astrometry engine (like locally installed astrometry.net). I have some sort of mount that precisely tells ...
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Why celestial bodies crossing prime vertical are the best to measure for astronavigational purpose?
Going through multiple astronomical almanacs or tutorials on astronavigation I encountered a statement that for some particular use (like finding our longitude position) its best to use celestial ...
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Celestial Navigation - LOP uncertainty
In doing a sight reduction of a celestial body at a given time the goal is to define a line on a chart that includes the location you think you are in. Given the angle of a sighting, the UTC time/date ...
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Azimuth formula (independent of height of body)
I am learning astronavigation. I arrived to formulas for height and azimuth of heavenly bodies.
I can easily find equations I and II from screenshot (the book is "The American Practical Navigator ...
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Celestial Navigation - How to calculate Longitude?
I'm trying to learn celestial navigation using the Sun to determine longitude. I'm starting to understand some of these concepts, but I can't figure out how to calculate longitude accurately. Hoping ...
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Practice noon sight in Colorado?
I'm looking to get started in basic celestial navigation, but I live in Colorado1. The first problem that gives me is the absence of an accurate horizon in any direction. To help address this I bought ...
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