NOTES FOR THE SECOND MATE

TOPIC:

CELESTIAL SIGHTS
CELESTIAL OBJECTS SIGHTS

INDEX
1. How to use star finder

2. How to take star sight

3. How to take morning sight

4. How to take noon sight

5. How to take evening sight

6. How to take planet sight

7. NOON POSITION
 Star finder? How to use it?

Star finder is used to choose suitable stars for celestial

observations and for identifying stars.

Criteria for choosing the stars should be as follows

i) Angular separation should be as close as possible to 90.
ii) Chosen stars magnitude should be low i.e. they should be bright.
iii) Altitude should be between 20-70.

1. For morning twilight find out LMT Nautical Twilight and for evening
twilight find out LMT Civil Twilight
2. Apply LIT to get GMT and ZT to get SMT.
3. Now apply run to last known position to get DR Latitude and
4. Longitude from current SMT to the SMT which obtained.
5. Now from almanac get GHA Aries
6. Apply longitude to get LHA Aries.
7. From DR Latitude and LHA Aries go to star finder and using the
correct template closest to DR Latitude choose 3-4 stars.
For identifying stars just get the azimuth of star and calculate LHA aries
and latitude is known so use suitable template and put the pointer on
LHA aries and using the azimuth find the star.

ADMIRALTY STAR FINDER (NP323)

It consist of the star chart for the northern and southern

hemisphere together with eight transparent templates for
the latitude 0 to 60 and 75 degree .these charts shoes
the total 57 stars tabulated in nautical almanac.

Star Sight?

1. First we need to choose suitable stars which can be found using

the Star finder.
2. For morning twilight find out LMT Nautical Twilight and for evening
twilight find out LMT Civil Twilight
3. Apply LIT to get GMT and ZT to get SMT.
4. Now apply run to last known position to get DR Latitude and Long
from current SMT to the SMT obtained.
5. Now from almanac get GHA Aries and apply longitude to get LHA
Aries.
6. From DR Latitude and LHA Aries go to star finder and using the
correct template closest to DR Latitude choose 3-4 stars.
7. Now for morning sight start with the stars on eastern horizon as
they will disappear from horizon first, take the altitude and azimuth
note down the time for all the stars, for evening sight we will have
to set the sextant at obtained altitude and azimuth from star finder
for stars on eastern horizon as the eastern horizon will disappear
first.
8. Use 3 stars for plotting purpose. Apply run to the obtained PL using
Intercept to nearest hour. Point of intersection of the PLs would be
your position.
Morning Sight?
1. First we need to choose suitable stars which can be found using
the Star finder.
2. For morning twilight find out LMT Nautical Twilight apply LIT to get
GMT and ZT to get SMT.
3. Now apply run to last known position to get DR Latitude and
Longitude from current SMT to
4. the SMT obtained.
5. Now from almanac get GHA Aries and apply longitude to get LHA
Aries.
6. From DR Latitude and LHA Aries go to star finder and using the
correct template closest to
7. DR Latitude chooses 3-4 stars.

8. Criteria for choosing the stars should be as follows

i) Angular separation should be as close as possible to 90.
ii) Chosen stars magnitude should be low i.e. they should be
bright.
iii) Altitude should be between 20-70.

9. Now for morning sight start with the stars on eastern horizon as
they will disappear from horizon first, take the altitude and azimuth
note down the time for all the stars,
10. Use 3 stars for plotting purpose. Apply run to the obtained PL using
Intercept to nearest hour. Point of intersection of the PLs would be
your position.
WHY WE USE IN MORNING TIME THE
LONG BY CHRON METHOD

Long by Chron is preferred in morning because:

It is easier to get longitude at noon with C correction

no need of plotting.

Accuracy of fix increased with PL observed with Long by

Chron the angle of cut is as close to 90.

In morning the altitude is changing quite fast as

compared to Azimuth and in the formula of intercept
this fast change of altitude can cause error in calculation
of TZD and hence error in intercept whereas in the long
by Chron the True Alt is in numerator so a small error
does not affect the accuracy of fix a lot.
NOON SIGHT
1. Get the LMT Meridian pass from daily pages of Almanac

2. Calculate DR Position from LMT obtained and apply LIT to it get

the GMT and then apply ZT and get SMT

3. Now apply run and get DR Position for the SMT

4. Now take this DR Longitude and apply LIT from this longitude to
LMT get GMT apply ZT and get SMT.

5. Repeat this process twice so as to get more accurate LMT

Meridian passage, this process is called Iteration.

6. Calculate DR for meridian passage from morning Observed

longitude and DR latitude.

7. 10 minutes before set the sextant with sun on the horizon, keep
bringing the sun down as it goes up.

8. The moment when sun stops going up and starts going down
note the time and the highest altitude obtained will be the
meridian passage altitude.

9. Using this altitude calculate MZD and observed latitude and

apply C correction and obtain longitude for noon observation.
EVENING SIGHT

1. First we need to choose suitable stars which can be found using the
Star finder.

2. For evening twilight find out LMT Civil Twilight

3. Apply LIT to get GMT and ZT to get SMT.

4. Now apply run to last known position to get DR Latitude and

Longitude from current SMT to the SMT obtained.

5. Now from almanac get GHA Aries and apply longitude to get LHA
Aries.

6. From DR Latitude and LHA Aries go to star finder and using the
correct template closest to DR Latitude and choose 3-4 stars.

7. Criteria for choosing the stars should be as follows

a. Angular separation should be as close as possible to 90.

b. Chosen stars magnitude should be low i.e. they should be

bright.

c. Altitude should be between 20-70.

8. Now for evening sight we will have to set the sextant at obtained
altitude and azimuth from star finder for stars on eastern horizon as
the eastern horizon will disappear first.

9. Use 3 stars for plotting purpose. Apply run to the obtained PL using
Intercept to nearest hour. Point of intersection of the PLs would be
your position.
NOON POSITION
During the morning and evening twilights several stars and planets
are present, that time we can get the sight by star or by planet and
with help of the position lines we can get the fix, During the noon
time we will be having sun as the only celestial body which can
assist us to get the noon position

In the noon time we can get the position by 2 ways

1. Latitude by meridian altitude method

2. Ex-meridian method

1. Latitude by meridian altitude:

2. First of all find out approx. LMT from almanac Daily pages.
3. Apply LIT to get GMT for the time of observation
4. Now check the sextant for any error (Perpendicularity,side
or index)
5. Determine the index error
6. Approximately 15 min before, after doing calculation of
meridian passage time clamp the sextant and bring sun to
the horizon.
7. Keep the sextant on same position and tilt the sextant till
the sun not rise and makes the strait line for the some
second. (After that the sun image start dipping)
8. Note down the time of this observation.
9. After doing calculation we will get the meridian altitude of
sun.
 10. The position will be the position of suns meridian
passage time of observation
11. Now transfer the position line of the morning sight to the
position line of the latitude of the meridian altitude,where
its intersect that is the apparent noon position.
12. After Appling the run to between the time of position
obtained and noon time we get the true position.

2 .EX-MERIDIAN METHOD:
1. We use this method when we are not able to take sight at the
meridian time due to cloudy weather.
2. When we getting the sight at meridian passage time and could
not take the sight that time we will find out the ex-meridian
limit by either nourish table or by approximation method by
latitude and declination.
3. After getting the observation we find out the position this is
the position of time of observation.
4. After this we run the morning position line and get the fix
5. After Appling the run to between the time of position
6. obtained and noon time we get the true position.
7. By this way we get the noon position .