Determining the Position and Motion of a Vessel from Celestial Observations

Abstract

Although many mathematical approaches to the celestial fix problem have been published, all of them fundamentally assume a stationary observer. Since this situation seldom occurs in practice, methods have been developed that effectively remove the observer's motion from the problem before a fix is determined. As an alternative, this paper presents a development of celestial navigation that incorporates a moving observer as part of its basic construction. This development allows recovery of the information on the vessel's course and speed contained in the observations. Thus, it provides the means for determining, from a suitable ensemble of celestial observations, the values of all four parameters describing a vessel's rhumb-line track across the earth: latitude and longitude at a specific time, course, and speed. In many cases, this technique will result in better fixes than traditional methods.