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Astronavigation
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 surface of the Earth without relying solely on estimated positional calculations, commonly known as dead reckoning. Celestial navigation is performed without using satellite navigation or other similar modern electronic or digital positioning means. Celestial navigation uses "sights," or timed angular measurements, taken typically between a celestial body (e.g., the Sun, the Moon, a planet, or a star) and the visible horizon. Celestial navigation can also take advantage of measurements between celestial bodies without reference to the Earth's horizon, such as when the Moon and other selected bodies are used in the practice called "lunars" or the lunar distance method, used for determining precise time when time is unknown. Celestial navigation b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sight Reduction
In astronavigation, sight reduction is the process of deriving from a Sight (device), sight (in celestial navigation usually obtained using a sextant) the information needed for establishing a line of position, generally by intercept method. Sight is defined as the observation of the altitude, and sometimes also the azimuth, of a celestial body for a line of position; or the data obtained by such observation. The mathematical basis of sight reduction is the circle of equal altitude. The calculation can be done by computer, or by hand via tabular methods and longhand methods. Algorithm Given: * Lat, the latitude (North - positive, South - negative), Lon the longitude (East - positive, West - negative), both approximate (assumed); * Dec, the declination of the body observed; * GHA, the Greenwich hour angle of the body observed; * LHA = GHA + Lon, the local hour angle of the body observed. First calculate the altitude of the celestial body Hc using the equation of circle of equal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marine Sextant
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (other) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine current power * Marine debris * Marine energy * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * Marines, a naval-based infantry force ** United States Marine Corps ** Royal Marines of the UK ** Brazilian Marine Corps ** Spanish Marine Infantry ** Fusiliers marins (France) ** Indonesian Marine Corps ** Republic of China Marine Corps ** Republic of Korea Marine Corps ** Royal Thai Marine Corps *"Marine" also means "navy" in several languages: ** Austro-Hungarian Navy () ** Belgian Navy (, , ) ** Royal Canadian Navy () *** Provincial Marine (1796–1910), a predecessor to the Royal Canadian Navy ** Navy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo () ** Royal Danish Navy () ** Finnish Navy (, ) ** French Navy () ** Gabonese Navy () ** German Navy () ** Royal Moroccan Navy () ** Royal Netherlands Navy () ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Almanac
An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasting, weather forecasts, farmers' sowing, planting dates, tide tables, and other table (information), tabular data often arranged according to the calendar. Celestial figures and various statistics are found in almanacs, such as the sunrise, rising and sunset, setting times of the Sun and Moon, dates of eclipses, hours of high and low tides, and religious festivals. The set of events noted in an almanac may be tailored for a specific group of readers, such as farmers, sailors, or astronomers. Name The etymology of the word is unclear. The earliest documented use of the word in something like its current sense is in Latin in 1267. Roger Bacon used it to mean a set of tables detailing movements of heavenly bodies including the Moon. It has been suggested that the word ''almanac'' derives fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nautical Mile
A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at the equator, so that Earth's polar circumference is very near to 21,600 nautical miles (that is 60 minutes × 360 degrees). Today the international nautical mile is defined as exactly . The derived unit of speed is the knot, one nautical mile per hour. Unit symbol There is no single internationally agreed symbol, with several symbols in use. * NM is used by the International Civil Aviation Organization. * nmi is used by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the United States Government Publishing Office. * M is used as the abbreviation for the nautical mile by the International Hydrographic Organization. * nm is a non-standard abbreviation used in many maritime applications and texts, including U.S. Government Coa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hack Watch
A hack watch is a mechanical watch whose movement offers a mechanism for stopping and setting the seconds hand of the watch, then restarting the watch the instant the time setting matches the time displayed by a reference timepiece. Hack watches are used on ships for astronomical sights for navigation and to synchronize the actions of personnel who may not be in direct communication (for example, personnel engaged in a military mission). For navigational purposes, the hack watch is synchronized with the ship's marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at t .... The use of a hack watch makes it easier to take sights, as the chronometer is normally in a fixed position in a ship – below decks and suspended in gimbals to keep it level and protect it from the ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (geography), meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a degree (angle), 360°-system) form a great ellipse. This divides the body (e.g. Earth) into hemispheres of Earth, two hemispheres: the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere (for an east-west notational system). For Earth's prime meridian, various conventions have been used or advocated in different regions throughout history. Earth's current international standard prime meridian is the IERS Reference Meridian. It is derived, but differs slightly, from the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Greenwich Meridian, the previous standard. Longitudes for the Earth and Moon are measured from their prime meridian (at 0°) to 180° east and west. For all other Solar System bodies, longitude is measured from 0° (their prime meridian) to 360� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Slocum
Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his journey, '' Sailing Alone Around the World'', which became an international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the '' Spray''. Nova Scotian childhood Joshua Slocum was born on February 20, 1844, in Mount Hanley, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia (officially recorded as Wilmot Station), a community on the North Mountain within sight of the Bay of Fundy. The fifth of eleven children of John SlocombGeoffrey Wolff, ''The Hard Way Around: The Passages of Joshua Slocum'', p. 8: spelling of family name given as "Slocombe". and Sarah Jane Slocombe ''née'' Southern, Joshua descended, on his father's side, from a Quaker known as "John the Exile", who left the United States shortly after 1780 bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Example
Example may refer to: * ''exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, and example.edu: second-level domain names reserved for use in documentation as examples * HMS Example (P165), HMS ''Example'' (P165), an Archer-class patrol and training vessel of the Royal Navy Arts * ''The Example'', a 1634 play by James Shirley * The Example (comics), ''The Example'' (comics), a 2009 graphic novel by Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson * Example (musician), the British dance musician Elliot John Gleave (born 1982) * Example (album), ''Example'' (album), a 1995 album by American rock band For Squirrels See also * Exemplar (other), a prototype or model which others can use to understand a topic better * Exemplum, medieval collections of short stories to be told in sermons * Eixample, a district of Barcelona with di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radius
In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is the line segment or distance from its center to any of its Vertex (geometry), vertices. The name comes from the Latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the spoke of a chariot wheel.Definition of Radius at dictionary.reference.com. Accessed on 2009-08-08. The typical abbreviation and mathematical symbol for radius is ''R'' or ''r''. By extension, the diameter ''D'' is defined as twice the radius:Definition of radius at mathwords.com. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nautical Chart
A nautical chart or hydrographic chart is a graphic representation of a sea region or water body and adjacent coasts or river bank, banks. Depending on the scale (map), scale of the chart, it may show depths of water (bathymetry) and heights of land (topography), natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and human-made aids to navigation, information on tides and Ocean current, currents, local details of the Earth's magnetic field, and human-made structures such as harbor, harbours, buildings, and bridges. Nautical charts are essential tools for marine navigation; many countries require vessels, especially commercial ships, to carry them. Nautical charting may take the form of charts printed on paper (raster navigational charts) or computerized electronic navigational charts. Recent technologies have made available paper charts which are printed "on demand" with cartographic data that has been downloaded to the commercial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Position Line
A position line or line of position (LOP) is a line (or, on the surface of the Earth, a curve) that can be both identified on a chart (nautical chart or aeronautical chart) and translated to the surface of the Earth. The intersection of a minimum of two position lines is a fix that is used in position fixing to identify a navigator's location. There are several types of position line: * Compass bearing – the angle between north and the line passing through the compass and the point of interest * Transit – a line passing through the observer and two other reference points * Leading line – the line passing through two marks indicating a safe channel * Leading lights – the line passing through two beacons indicating a safe channel * Sector lights – the lines created by masked colored lights that indicate a safe channel See also * Coordinate line * Intersection (aeronautics) * Navigation * Position circle * Sight reduction In astronavigation, sight reduction is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apparent Place
The apparent place of an object is its position in space as seen by an observer. Because of physical and geometrical effects it may differ from the "true" or "geometric" position. Astronomy In astronomy, a distinction is made between the ''mean position'', ''apparent position'' and ''topocentric position'' of an object. Position of a star The mean position of a star (relative to the observer's adopted coordinate system) can be calculated from its value at an arbitrary epoch, together with its actual motion over time (known as proper motion). The ''apparent position'' is its position as seen by a theoretical observer at the centre of the moving Earth. Several effects cause the apparent position to differ from the mean position: * Annual aberration – a deflection caused by the velocity of the Earth's motion around the Sun, relative to an inertial frame of reference. This is independent of the distance of the star from the Earth. * Annual parallax – the apparent change in p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
