Astronomy

is a natural science which is the study of celestial objects (such as stars, galaxies, planets, moons,
and nebulae), the physics, chemistry, and evolution of such objects, and phenomena that originate
outside the atmosphere of Earth, including supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, andcosmic
microwave background radiation. A related but distinct subject, cosmology, is concerned with studying
the universe as a whole.[1]
Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Prehistoric cultures have left astronomical artifacts such as
the Egyptian monuments and Nubian monuments, and early civilizations such as
the Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Iranians and Maya performed methodical observations of
the night sky. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to
develop into a modern science. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse
as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy and the making of calendars, but
professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics.[2]
During the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split
into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data
from observations of astronomical objects, which is then analyzed using basic principles of physics.
Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to
describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with
theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the observational results and observations being used to
confirm theoretical results.
Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the
discovery and observation of transient phenomenaand Amateur astronomers have made and
contributed to many important astronomical discoveries.

History
In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects
visible to the naked eye. In some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly
had some astronomical purpose. In addition to their ceremonial uses, these observatories could be
employed to determine the seasons, an important factor in knowing when to plant crops, as well as in
understanding the length of the year.[11]
Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the
naked eye. As civilizations developed, most notably in Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, Greece, India,

and Central America, astronomical observatories were assembled, and ideas on the nature of the
universe began to be explored. Most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions
of the stars and planets, a science now referred to asastrometry. From these observations, early
ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon and the Earth in
the universe were explored philosophically. The Earth was believed to be the center of the universe
with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the geocentric model of the
universe, or the Ptolemaic system, named after Ptolemy.[12]
A particularly important early development was the beginning of mathematical and scientific
astronomy, which began among the Babylonians, who laid the foundations for the later astronomical
traditions that developed in many other civilizations. [13] The Babylonians discovered that lunar
eclipsesrecurred in a repeating cycle known as a saros.[14]

Scientific revolution
During the Renaissance, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the solar system. His
work was defended, expanded upon, and corrected byGalileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler. Galileo
used telescopes to enhance his observations. [32]
Kepler was the first to devise a system that described correctly the details of the motion of the planets
with the Sun at the center. However, Kepler did not succeed in formulating a theory behind the laws
he wrote down.[33] It was left to Newton's invention of celestial dynamics and his law of gravitation to
finally explain the motions of the planets. Newton also developed the reflecting telescope.[32]
Further discoveries paralleled the improvements in the size and quality of the telescope. More
extensive star catalogues were produced by Lacaille. The astronomer William Herschel made a
detailed catalog of nebulosity and clusters, and in 1781 discovered the planet Uranus, the first new
planet found.[34] The distance to a star was first announced in 1838 when the parallax of 61 Cygni was
measured by Friedrich Bessel.[35]
During the 1819th centuries, attention to the three body problem by Euler, Clairaut,
and D'Alembert led to more accurate predictions about the motions of the Moon and planets. This
work was further refined by Lagrange and Laplace, allowing the masses of the planets and moons to
be estimated from their perturbations.[36]
Significant advances in astronomy came about with the introduction of new technology, including
the spectroscope and photography. Fraunhofer discovered about 600 bands in the spectrum of the
Sun in 181415, which, in 1859, Kirchhoff ascribed to the presence of different elements. Stars were

proven to be similar to the Earth's own Sun, but with a wide range of temperatures, masses, and
sizes.[24]
The existence of the Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way, as a separate group of stars, was only proved in
the 20th century, along with the existence of "external" galaxies, and soon after, the expansion of
the Universe, seen in the recession of most galaxies from us. [37] Modern astronomy has also
discovered many exotic objects such as quasars, pulsars, blazars, and radio galaxies, and has used
these observations to develop physical theories which describe some of these objects in terms of
equally exotic objects such as black holes and neutron stars. Physical cosmologymade huge
advances during the 20th century, with the model of the Big Bang heavily supported by the evidence
provided by astronomy and physics, such as the cosmic microwave background radiation, Hubble's
law, and cosmological abundances of elements. Space telescopes have enabled measurements in
parts of the electromagnetic spectrum normally blocked or blurred by the atmosphere

Astronomical object
Astronomical objects or celestial objects are naturally occurring physical entities, associations or
structures that current science has demonstrated to exist in the observable universe.[2] The
term astronomical object is sometimes used interchangeably with astronomical body. Typically, an
astronomical (celestial) body refers to a single, cohesive structure that is bound together
by gravity (and sometimes byelectromagnetism). Examples include the asteroids, moons, planets and
the stars. Astronomical objects are gravitationally bound structures that are associated with a position
in space, but may consist of multiple independent astronomical bodies or objects. These objects
range from single planets to star clusters, nebulae or entire galaxies. A comet may be described as a
body, in reference to the frozen nucleus of ice and dust, or as an object, when describing the nucleus
with its diffuse coma and tail.
The universe can be viewed as having a hierarchical structure. [3] At the largest scales, the
fundamental component of assembly is thegalaxy, which are assembled out of dwarf galaxies. The
galaxies are organized into groups and clusters, often within larger superclusters, that are strung
along great filaments between nearly empty voids, forming a web that spans the observable universe.
[4]
Galaxies and dwarf galaxies have a variety of morphologies, with the shapes determined by their
formation and evolutionary histories, including interaction with other galaxies. [5] Depending on the
category, a galaxy may have one or more distinct features, such as spiral arms, a halo and a nucleus.
At the core, most galaxies have a supermassive black hole, which may result in an active galactic
nucleus. Galaxies can also have satellites in the form of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters.
The constituents of a galaxy are formed out of gaseous matter that assembles through gravitational
self-attraction in a hierarchical manner. At this level, the resulting fundamental components are the
stars, which are typically assembled in clusters from the various condensing nebulae. [6] The great

variety of stellar forms are determined almost entirely by the mass, composition and evolutionary
state of these stars. Stars may be found in multi-star systems that orbit about each other in a
hierarchical organization. A planetary system and various minor objects such as asteroids, comets
and debris, can form in a hierarchical process of accretion from the protoplanetary disks that
surrounds newly created stars.
The various distinctive types of stars are shown by the HertzsprungRussell diagram (HR diagram)
a plot of absolute stellar luminosity versus surface temperature. Each star follows anevolutionary
track across this diagram. If this track takes the star through a region containing an intrinsic
variable type, then its physical properties can cause it to become a variable star. An example of this is
the instability strip, a region of the H-R diagram that includes Delta Scuti, RR Lyrae and Cepheid
variables.[7] Depending on the initial mass of the star and the presence or absence of a companion, a
star may spend the last part of its life as a compact object; either a white dwarf, neutron star, or black
hole.

The Solar system

The Solar System[a] comprises the Sun and the objects that orbit it, whether they orbit it directly or by
orbiting other objects that orbit it directly.[b] Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight
are the planets[c] that form the planetary systemaround it, while the remainder are significantly smaller
objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies (SSSBs) such
as comets and asteroids.[d]
The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular
cloud. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun, with most of the remaining mass
contained in Jupiter. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus,Earth and Mars, also called
the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, called
the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter
and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost
planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of substances with relatively high melting points
(compared with hydrogen and helium), called ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are
often referred to separately as "ice giants". All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a
nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane.
The Solar System also contains regions populated by smaller objects.[d] The asteroid belt, which lies
between Mars and Jupiter, mostly contains objects composed, like the terrestrial planets, of rock and
metal. Beyond Neptune's orbit lie the Kuiper belt andscattered disc, linked populations of transNeptunian objects composed mostly of ices. Within these populations are several dozen to more than
ten thousand objects that may be large enough to have been rounded by their own gravity.[10] Such

objects are referred to as dwarf planets. Identified dwarf planets include the asteroid Ceres and the
trans-Neptunian objects Pluto and Eris.[d] In addition to these two regions, various other small-body
populations, including comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust, freely travel between regions. Six of
the planets, at least three of the dwarf planets, and many of the smaller bodies are orbited by natural
satellites,[e] usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon. Each of the outer planets is encircled
by planetary rings of dust and other small objects.
The solar wind, a flow of plasma from the Sun, creates a bubble in the interstellar medium known as
the heliosphere, which extends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The Oort cloud, which is
believed to be the source for long-period comets, may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand
times further than the heliosphere. The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind
is equal to the opposing pressure of interstellar wind. The Solar System is located in the Orion Arm,
26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way.

Discovery and exploration

For many thousands of years, humanity, with a few notable exceptions, did not recognize the
existence of the Solar System. People believed Earth to be stationary at the centre of
the universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky.
Although the Greekphilosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated on a heliocentric reordering of
the cosmos, Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically
predictive heliocentric system.[11][12] In the 17th-century, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac
Newton, developed an understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that
Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that
governed Earth. The invention of the telescope led to the discovery of further planets and moons.
Improvements in the telescope and the use of unmanned spacecraft have enabled the investigation
of geological phenomena, such as mountains, craters, seasonal meteorological phenomena, such
as clouds, dust storms and ice caps on the other planets.

Structure and composition

The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence starthat contains
99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally.[13] The Sun's four largest orbiting

bodies, the gas giants, account for 99% of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together
comprising more than 90%.[f]
Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic.
The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at
significantly greater angles to it.[17][18] All the planets and most other objects orbit the Sun in the same
direction that the Sun is rotating (counter-clockwise, as viewed from a long way above Earth's north
pole).[19] There are exceptions, such as Halley's Comet.
The overall structure of the charted regions of the Solar System consists of the Sun, four relatively
small inner planets surrounded by a belt of rocky asteroids, and four gas giants surrounded by the
Kuiper belt of icy objects. Astronomers sometimes informally divide this structure into separate
regions. The inner Solar System includes the four terrestrial planets and the asteroid belt. The outer
Solar System is beyond the asteroids, including the four gas giants. [20] Since the discovery of the
Kuiper belt, the outermost parts of the Solar System are considered a distinct region consisting of the
objects beyond Neptune.[21]
Most of the planets in the Solar System possess secondary systems of their own, being orbited by
planetary objects callednatural satellites, or moons (two of which are larger than the planet Mercury),
and, in the case of the four gas giants, byplanetary rings, thin bands of tiny particles that orbit them in
unison. Most of the largest natural satellites are in synchronous rotation, with one face permanently
turned toward their parent.
Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the orbits of objects about the Sun. Following Kepler's
laws, each object travels along an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Objects closer to the Sun (with
smaller semi-major axes) travel more quickly because they are more affected by the Sun's gravity. On
an elliptical orbit, a body's distance from the Sun varies over the course of its year. A body's closest
approach to the Sun is called its perihelion, whereas its most distant point from the Sun is called
its aphelion. The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but many comets, asteroids, and Kuiper belt
objects follow highly elliptical orbits. The positions of the bodies in the Solar System can be predicted
using numerical models.
Although the Sun dominates the system by mass, it accounts for only about 2% of the angular
momentum[22] due to the differential rotation within the gaseous Sun. [23] The planets, dominated by
Jupiter, account for most of the rest of the angular momentum due to the combination of their mass,
orbit, and distance from the Sun, with a possibly significant contribution from comets. [22]
The Sun, which comprises nearly all the matter in the Solar System, is composed of roughly 98%
hydrogen and helium.[24]Jupiter and Saturn, which comprise nearly all the remaining matter, possess
atmospheres composed of roughly 99% of these elements. [25][26] A composition gradient exists in the
Solar System, created by heat and light pressure from the Sun; those objects closer to the Sun, which
are more affected by heat and light pressure, are composed of elements with high melting points.
Objects farther from the Sun are composed largely of materials with lower melting points. [27] The

boundary in the Solar System beyond which those volatile substances could condense is known as
the frost line, and it lies at roughly 5 AU from the Sun. [5]
The objects of the inner Solar System are composed mostly of rock, [28] the collective name for
compounds with high melting points, such as silicates, iron or nickel, that remained solid under almost
all conditions in the protoplanetary nebula.[29]Jupiter and Saturn are composed mainly of gases, the
astronomical term for materials with extremely low melting points and high vapour pressure, such
as hydrogen, helium, and neon, which were always in the gaseous phase in the nebula. [29] Ices,
like water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide,[28] have melting points up to a
few hundred kelvins.[29] They can be found as ices, liquids, or gases in various places in the Solar
System, whereas in the nebula they were either in the solid or gaseous phase. [29] Icy substances
comprise the majority of the satellites of the giant planets, as well as most of Uranus and Neptune
(the so-called "ice giants") and the numerous small objects that lie beyond Neptune's orbit. [28]
[30]
Together, gases and ices are referred to as volatiles.[31

Distances and scales

The distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (150,000,000 km). For comparison, the
radius of the Sun is 0.0047 AU (700,000 km). Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (105 %) of the
volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly one
millionth (106) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 astronomical units (780,000,000 km)
from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune,
is 30 AU (4.5109 km) from the Sun.
With a few exceptions, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the larger the distance between its
orbit and the orbit of the next nearer object to the Sun. For example, Venus is approximately 0.33 AU
farther out from the Sun than Mercury, whereas Saturn is 4.3 AU out from Jupiter, and Neptune lies
10.5 AU out from Uranus. Attempts have been made to determine a relationship between these
orbital distances (for example, the TitiusBode law),[32] but no such theory has been accepted. The
images at the beginning of this section show the orbits of the various constituents of the Solar System
on different scales.
Some Solar System models attempt to convey the relative scales involved in the Solar System on
human terms. Some are small in scale (and may be mechanicalcalled orreries)whereas others
extend across cities or regional areas. [33] The largest such scale model, theSweden Solar System,
uses the 110-metre (361-ft) Ericsson Globe in Stockholm as its substitute Sun, and, following the
scale, Jupiter is a 7.5-metre (25-foot) sphere at Arlanda International Airport, 40 km (25 mi) away,

whereas the farthest current object, Sedna, is a 10-cm (4-in) sphere in Lule, 912 km (567 mi) away.
[34][35]

If the SunNeptune distance is scaled to 100 metres, then the Sun is about 3 cm in diameter (roughly
two-thirds the diameter of a golf ball), the gas giants all smaller than about 3 mm. Earth's diameter
along with the other terrestrial planets would be smaller than a flea (0.3 mm) at this scale.[36]

Formation and evolution

The Solar System formed 4.568 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a region within a
large molecular cloud.[37] This initial cloud was likely several light-years across and probably birthed
several stars.[38] As is typical of molecular clouds, this one consisted mostly of hydrogen, with some
helium, and small amounts of heavier elements fused by previous generations of stars. As the region
that would become the Solar System, known as thepre-solar nebula,[39] collapsed, conservation
of angular momentum caused it to rotate faster. The centre, where most of the mass collected,
became increasingly hotter than the surrounding disc. [38] As the contracting nebula rotated faster, it
began to flatten into a protoplanetary disc with a diameter of roughly 200 AU[38] and a hot,
dense protostar at the centre.[40][41] The planets formed by accretion from this disc,[42] in which dust and
gas gravitationally attracted each other, coalescing to form ever larger bodies. Hundreds of
protoplanets may have existed in the early Solar System, but they either merged or were destroyed,
leaving the planets, dwarf planets, and leftover minor bodies.

Due to their higher boiling points, only metals and silicates could exist in solid form in the warm inner
Solar System close to the Sun, and these would eventually form the rocky planets of Mercury, Venus,
Earth, and Mars. Because metallic elements only comprised a very small fraction of the solar nebula,
the terrestrial planets could not grow very large. The giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune) formed further out, beyond the frost line, the point between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
where material is cool enough for volatile icy compounds to remain solid. The ices that formed these
planets were more plentiful than the metals and silicates that formed the terrestrial inner planets,
allowing them to grow massive enough to capture large atmospheres of hydrogen and helium, the
lightest and most abundant elements. Leftover debris that never became planets congregated in
regions such as the asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, and Oort cloud. The Nice model is an explanation for
the creation of these regions and how the outer planets could have formed in different positions and
migrated to their current orbits through various gravitational interactions.
Within 50 million years, the pressure and density of hydrogen in the centre of the protostar became
great enough for it to begin thermonuclear fusion.[43] The temperature, reaction rate, pressure, and
density increased until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved: the thermal pressure equalled the force
of gravity. At this point, the Sun became a main-sequence star.[44] Solar wind from the Sun created
the heliosphere and swept away the remaining gas and dust from the protoplanetary disc into
interstellar space, ending the planetary formation process.
The Solar System will remain roughly as we know it today until the hydrogen in the core of the Sun
has been entirely converted to helium, which will occur roughly 5.4 billion years from now. This will
mark the end of the Sun's main-sequence life. At this time, the core of the Sun will collapse, and the
energy output will be much greater than at present. The outer layers of the Sun will expand to roughly
260 times its current diameter, and the Sun will become a red giant. Because of its vastly increased
surface area, the surface of the Sun will be considerably cooler (2,600 K at its coolest) than it is on
the main sequence.[45] The expanding Sun is expected to vaporize Mercury and Venus and render
Earth uninhabitable as the habitable zone moves out to the orbit of Mars. Eventually, the core will be
hot enough for helium fusion; the Sun will burn helium for a fraction of the time it burned hydrogen in
the core. The Sun is not massive enough to commence the fusion of heavier elements, and nuclear
reactions in the core will dwindle. Its outer layers will move away into space, leaving a white dwarf, an
extraordinarily dense object, half the original mass of the Sun but only the size of Earth. [46] The
ejected outer layers will form what is known as a planetary nebula, returning some of the material that
formed the Sunbut now enriched withheavier elements like carbonto the interstellar medium.

Sun

The Sun is the Solar System's star, and by far its chief component. Its large mass (332,900 Earth
masses)[47] produces temperatures and densities in its core high enough to sustain nuclear fusion,
[48]
which releases enormous amounts of energy, mostly radiated into space aselectromagnetic
radiation, peaking in the 400700 nm band of visible light.[49]
The Sun is a type G2 main-sequence star. Compared to the majority of stars in the Milky Way, the
Sun is rather large and bright.[50] Stars are classified by the HertzsprungRussell diagram, a graph
that plots the brightness of stars with their surface temperatures. Generally, hotter stars are brighter.
Stars following this pattern are said to be on the main sequence, and the Sun lies right in the middle
of it. Stars brighter and hotter than the Sun are rare, whereas substantially dimmer and cooler stars,
known as red dwarfs, are common, making up 85% of the stars in the galaxy.[50][51]
Evidence suggests that the Sun's position on the main sequence puts it in the "prime of life" for a star,
not yet having exhausted its store of hydrogen for nuclear fusion. The Sun is growing brighter; early in
its history its brightness was 70% that of what it is today.[52]
The Sun is a population I star; it was born in the later stages of the universe's evolution and thus
contains more elements heavier than hydrogen and helium ("metals" in astronomical parlance) than
the older population II stars.[53] Elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were formed in
the cores of ancient and exploding stars, so the first generation of stars had to die before the universe
could be enriched with these atoms. The oldest stars contain few metals, whereas stars born later
have more. This high metallicity is thought to have been crucial to the Sun's development of
a planetary system because the planets form from the accretion of "metals".

Interplanetary medium
The vast majority of the Solar System consists of a near-vacuum known as the interplanetary
medium. Along with light, the Sun radiates a continuous stream of charged particles (a plasma)
known as the solar wind. This stream of particles spreads outwards at roughly 1.5 million kilometres
(932 thousand miles) per hour,[55] creating a tenuous atmosphere (the heliosphere) that permeates
the interplanetary medium out to at least 100 AU (seeheliopause).[56] Activity on the Sun's surface,

such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, disturb the heliosphere, creating space weather and
causing geomagnetic storms.[57] The largest structure within the heliosphere is the heliospheric
current sheet, a spiral form created by the actions of the Sun's rotating magnetic field on the
interplanetary medium.[58][59]
Earth's magnetic field stops its atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. [60] Venus and
Mars do not have magnetic fields, and as a result the solar wind is causing their atmospheres to
gradually bleed away into space.[61] Coronal mass ejections and similar events blow a magnetic field
and huge quantities of material from the surface of the Sun. The interaction of this magnetic field and
material with Earth's magnetic field funnels charged particles into Earth's upper atmosphere, where
its interactions create aurorae seen near the magnetic poles.
The heliosphere and planetary magnetic fields (for those planets that have them) partially shield the
Solar System from high-energy interstellar particles called cosmic rays. The density of cosmic rays in
the interstellar medium and the strength of the Sun's magnetic field change on very long timescales,
so the level of cosmic-ray penetration in the Solar System varies, though by how much is unknown. [62]
The interplanetary medium is home to at least two disc-like regions of cosmic dust. The first,
the zodiacal dust cloud, lies in the inner Solar System and causes the zodiacal light. It was likely
formed by collisions within the asteroid belt brought on by interactions with the planets. [63] The second
dust cloud extends from about 10 AU to about 40 AU, and was probably created by similar collisions
within the Kuiper belt.

Inner Solar System

The inner Solar System is the traditional name for the region comprising the terrestrial planets and
asteroids.[66] Composed mainly of silicates and metals, the objects of the inner Solar System are
relatively close to the Sun; the radius of this entire region is shorter than the distance between the
orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

Inner planets
The four inner or terrestrial planets have dense, rocky compositions, few or no moons, and no ring
systems. They are composed largely ofrefractory minerals, such as the silicates, which form
their crusts and mantles, and metals, such as iron and nickel, which form their cores. Three of the
four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to
generate weather; all have impact craters and tectonic surface features, such as rift
valleys and volcanoes. The term inner planet should not be confused with inferior planet, which
designates those planets that are closer to the Sun than Earth is (i.e. Mercury and Venus).

Mercury
Mercury (0.4 AU from the Sun) is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet in the
Solar System (0.055 Earth masses). Mercury has no natural satellites; besides impact craters,
its only known geological features are lobed ridges or rupes, probably produced by a period of
contraction early in its history.[67] Mercury's almost negligible atmosphere consists of atoms
blasted off its surface by the solar wind.[68] Its relatively large iron core and thin mantle have not
yet been adequately explained. Hypotheses include that its outer layers were stripped off by a
giant impact; or, that it was prevented from fully accreting by the young Sun's energy.[69][70]

Venus
Venus (0.7 AU from the Sun) is close in size to Earth (0.815 Earth masses) and, like Earth, has
a thick silicate mantle around an iron core, a substantial atmosphere, and evidence of internal
geological activity. It is much drier than Earth, and its atmosphere is ninety times as dense.
Venus has no natural satellites. It is the hottest planet, with surface temperatures over
400 C(752F), most likely due to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.[71] No
definitive evidence of current geological activity has been detected on Venus, but it has no
magnetic field that would prevent depletion of its substantial atmosphere, which suggests that
its atmosphere is frequently replenished by volcanic eruptions. [72]

Earth
Earth (1 AU from the Sun) is the largest and densest of the inner planets, the only one known
to have current geological activity, and the only place where life is known to exist.[73] Its
liquidhydrosphere is unique among the terrestrial planets, and it is the only planet where plate

tectonics has been observed. Earth's atmosphere is radically different from those of the other
planets, having been altered by the presence of life to contain 21% free oxygen.[74] It has one
natural satellite, the Moon, the only large satellite of a terrestrial planet in the Solar System.

Mars
Mars (1.5 AU from the Sun) is smaller than Earth and Venus (0.107 Earth masses). It
possesses an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide with a surface pressure of 6.1 millibars
(roughly 0.6% of that of Earth).[75] Its surface, peppered with vast volcanoes, such as Olympus
Mons, and rift valleys, such as Valles Marineris, shows geological activity that may have
persisted until as recently as 2 million years ago. [76] Its red colour comes from iron oxide (rust)
in its soil.[77] Mars has two tiny natural satellites (Deimos and Phobos) thought to be
captured asteroids.[78]

Asteroid belt
Asteroids are small Solar System bodies[d] composed mainly of refractory rocky and metallic minerals,
with some ice.[79]
The asteroid belt occupies the orbit between Mars and Jupiter, between 2.3 and 3.3 AU from the Sun.
It is thought to be remnants from the Solar System's formation that failed to coalesce because of the
gravitational interference of Jupiter.[80]
Asteroids range in size from hundreds of kilometres across to microscopic. All asteroids except the
largest, Ceres, are classified as small Solar System bodies. [81]
The asteroid belt contains tens of thousands, possibly millions, of objects over one kilometre in
diameter.[82] Despite this, the total mass of the asteroid belt is unlikely to be more than a thousandth of
that of Earth.[16] The asteroid belt is very sparsely populated; spacecraft routinely pass through without
incident. steroids with diameters between 10 and 10 4 m are called meteoroids.

Ceres

Ceres (2.77 AU) is the largest asteroid, a protoplanet, and a dwarf planet.[d] It has a diameter of
slightly under 1,000 km, and a mass large enough for its own gravity to pull it into a spherical shape.
Ceres was considered a planet when it was discovered in 1801, and was reclassified to asteroid in
the 1850s as further observations revealed additional asteroids. [84] It was classified as a dwarf planet
in 2006.

Asteroid groups
Asteroids in the asteroid belt are divided into asteroid groups and families based on their orbital
characteristics. Asteroid moons are asteroids that orbit larger asteroids. They are not as clearly
distinguished as planetary moons, sometimes being almost as large as their partners. The asteroid
belt also contains main-belt comets, which may have been the source of Earth's water.[85]
Jupiter trojans are located in either of Jupiter's L4 or L5 points (gravitationally stable regions leading
and trailing a planet in its orbit); the term "trojan" is also used for small bodies in any other planetary
or satellite Lagrange point. Hilda asteroids are in a 2:3 resonance with Jupiter; that is, they go around
the Sun three times for every two Jupiter orbits. [86]
The inner Solar System is also dusted with rogue asteroids, many of which cross the orbits of the
inner planets.[87]

Outer Solar System

The outer region of the Solar System is home to the gas giants and their large moons. Many shortperiod comets, including the centaurs, also orbit in this region. Due to their greater distance from the
Sun, the solid objects in the outer Solar System contain a higher proportion of volatiles, such as
water, ammonia and methane, than the rocky denizens of the inner Solar System because the colder
temperatures allow these compounds to remain solid.

Outer planets
The four outer planets, or gas giants (sometimes called Jovian planets), collectively make up 99% of
the mass known to orbit the Sun.[f] Jupiter and Saturn are each many tens of times the mass of Earth
and consist overwhelmingly of hydrogen and helium; Uranus and Neptune are far less massive (<20
Earth masses) and possess more ices in their makeup. For these reasons, some astronomers
suggest they belong in their own category, "ice giants".[88] All four gas giants have rings, although only
Saturn's ring system is easily observed from Earth. The term superior planet designates planets
outside Earth's orbit and thus includes both the outer planets and Mars.

Jupiter
Jupiter (5.2 AU), at 318 Earth masses, is 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets put
together. It is composed largely of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter's strong internal heat creates
semi-permanent features in its atmosphere, such as cloud bands and the Great Red Spot.
Jupiter has 67 known satellites. The four largest, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, show
similarities to the terrestrial planets, such as volcanism and internal heating. [89] Ganymede, the
largest satellite in the Solar System, is larger than Mercury.

Saturn
Saturn (9.5 AU), distinguished by its extensive ring system, has several similarities to Jupiter,
such as its atmospheric composition and magnetosphere. Although Saturn has 60% of
Jupiter's volume, it is less than a third as massive, at 95 Earth masses, making it the least
dense planet in the Solar System.[90] The rings of Saturn are made up of small ice and rock
particles.
Saturn has 62 confirmed satellites; two of which, Titan and Enceladus, show signs of
geological activity, though they are largely made of ice.[91] Titan, the second-largest moon in the
Solar System, is larger than Mercury and the only satellite in the Solar System with a
substantial atmospher

Uranus
Uranus (19.2 AU), at 14 Earth masses, is the lightest of the outer planets. Uniquely among the
planets, it orbits the Sun on its side; its axial tilt is over ninety degrees to the ecliptic. It has a
much colder core than the other gas giants and radiates very little heat into space. [92]
Uranus has 27 known satellites, the largest ones being Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel,
and Miranda.

Neptune
Neptune (30 AU), though slightly smaller than Uranus, is more massive (equivalent to 17
Earths) and therefore more dense. It radiates more internal heat, but not as much as Jupiter or
Saturn.[93]
Neptune has 14 known satellites. The largest, Triton, is geologically active,
with geysers of liquid nitrogen.[94] Triton is the only large satellite with a retrograde orbit.
Neptune is accompanied in its orbit by several minor planets, termed Neptune trojans, that are
in 1:1 resonance with it.

Centaurs
The centaurs are icy comet-like bodies whose orbits have semi-major axes greater than Jupiter's
(5.5 AU) and less than Neptune's (30 AU). The largest known centaur, 10199 Chariklo, has a
diameter of about 250 km.[95] The first centaur discovered, 2060 Chiron, has also been classified as
comet (95P) because it develops a coma just as comets do when they approach the Sun.

Motions Of Bodies Of The Solar System

The two principal motions of celestial bodies are Rotation and Revolution.
Rotation is a spinning motion about an axis within the body, whereas Revolution is the motion of a
body in its orbit around another body. The body around which a celestial object revolves is known as
that bodys primary.
The gravitational force of the sun holds the entire solar system together
This gravitational force causes the planets to go around the sun in nearly circular, elliptical orbits.
In each planets orbit, the point nearest the sun is called the perihelion. The point farthest from the
sun is called the aphelion.
The line joining perihelion and aphelion is called the line of apsides. In the orbit of the moon, the
point nearest the earth is called the perigee, and that point farthest from the earth is called the
apogee.
The distance from the earth to the sun varies from 91,300,000 at perihelion to 94,500,000 miles at
aphelion.
When the earth is at perihelion, early in January, the suns diameter appears largest, 32.6. At
aphelion, in June the suns apparent diameter is a minimum of 31.5.

Planets
The principal bodies orbiting the sun are called planets.
Nine principal planets are known: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and
Pluto. Of these, only four are commonly used for celestial navigation:
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Except for Pluto, the orbits of the planets lie in nearly the same plane as the earths orbit. This plane
of the celestial sphere is called the ecliptic.
The two planets with orbits smaller than that of the earth are called inferior planets, and those with
orbits larger than that of the earth are called superior planets.
Planets can be identified in the sky because, unlike the stars, they do not twinkle. The stars are so
distant that they are virtually point sources of light. Therefore the tiny stream of light from a star is
easily scattered by normal motions of air in the atmosphere causing the affect of twinkling. The

planets, however, are close enough to present perceptible disks. The light from a planet is not easily
distorted unless the planet is low on the horizon or the air is especially turbulent.

The Earth
The earth rotates on its axis and revolves in its orbit around the sun.
The above motions are the reason why the other celestial bodies have apparent motions.
For most navigational purposes, the earth can be considered a sphere. However, like the other
planets, the earth is approximately an oblate spheroid, or ellipsoid of revolution, flattened at the poles
and bulged at the equator.
The polar diameter is less than the equatorial diameter, and the meridians are slightly elliptical, rather
than circular.

Planets useful for navigation

Inferior Planets
Since Mercury and Venus are inside the earths orbit, they always appear close to the sun. Over a
period of weeks/ months, they appear to go back and forth from one side of the sun to the other.
They are seen either in the eastern sky before sunrise or in the western sky after sunset. For brief
periods they disappear into the suns glare.
At this time they are between the earth and sun (known as inferior conjunction) or on the opposite
side of the sun from the earth (superior conjunction). On rare occasions at inferior conjunction, the
planet will cross the face of the sun as seen from the earth. This is known as a transit of the sun.
When Mercury or Venus appears most distant from the sun in the evening sky, it is at greatest
eastern elongation.
(Although the planet is in the western sky, it is at its easternmost point from the sun.) From night to
night the planet will approach the sun until it disappears into the glare of twilight. At this time it is
moving between the earth and sun to inferior conjunction. A few days later, the planet will appear in
the morning sky at dawn. It will gradually move away from the sun to western elongation, and then
move back toward the sun. After disappearing in the morning twilight, it will move behind the sun to
superior conjunction. After this it will reappear in the evening sky, heading toward eastern elongation.
Mercury is never seen more than about 28from the sun.
For this reason it is not commonly used for navigation. Near greatest elongation it appears near the
western horizon after sunset, or the eastern horizon before sunrise. At these times it resembles a first
magnitude star.
The interval during which it appears as a morning or evening star can vary from about 30 to 50 days.
Around inferior conjunction, Mercury disappears for about 5 days; near superior conjunction, it
disappears for about 35 days.
Venus can reach a distance of 47from the sun, allowing it to dominate the morning or evening sky.
At maximum brilliance, about five weeks before and after inferior conjunction, it has a magnitude of
about 4.4 and is brighter than any other object in the sky except the sun and moon.

At these times it can be seen during the day and is sometimes observed for a celestial line of
position.

Superior Planets
They can pass behind the sun (conjunction), but they cannot pass between the sun and the earth.
Instead we see them move away from the sun until they are opposite the sun in the sky (opposition).
When a superior planet is near conjunction, it rises and sets approximately with the sun and is thus
lost in the suns glare. Gradually it becomes visible in the early morning sky before sunrise. From day
to day, it rises and sets earlier, becoming increasingly visible through the late night hours until dawn.
Approaching opposition, the planet will rise in the late evening, until at opposition, it will rise when the
sun sets, be visible throughout the night, and set when the sun rises.
Observed against the background stars, the planets normally move eastward in what is called direct
motion.
Approaching opposition, however, a planet will slow down, pause (at a stationary point), and begin
moving westward (retrograde motion), until it reaches the next stationary point and resumes its direct
motion.
The superior planets are brightest and closest to the earth at opposition.
Mars can usually be identified by its orange color. It can become as bright as magnitude 2.8 but is
more often between 1.0 and 2.0 at opposition.
Jupiter, largest of the known planets, normally outshines Mars, regularly reaching magnitude 2.0 or
brighter at opposition.
Saturn, is at opposition becomes as bright as magnitude +0.8 to 0.2.

The Moon
It revolves around the earth once in about 27.3 days, as measured with respect to the stars. This is
called the lunar month.
When the moon is in conjunction with the sun (new moon), it rises and sets with the sun and is lost in
the suns glare.
From day to day, the moon will rise (and set) later, becoming increasingly visible in the evening sky,
until (about 7 days after new moon) it reaches first quarter, when the moon rises about noon and sets
about midnight. Over the next week the moon will rise later and later in the afternoon until full moon,
when it rises about sunset and dominates the sky throughout the night.
During the next couple of weeks the moon will rise later and later at night. By last quarter (a week
after full moon), the moon rises about midnight and sets at noon. As it approaches new moon, the
moon becomes an increasingly thin crescent, and is seen only in the early morning sky. Sometime
before conjunction (16 hours to 2 days before conjunction) the thin crescent will disappear in the glare
of morning twilight.
At full moon, the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the ecliptic. Therefore, in the winter the full
moon rises early, crosses the celestial meridian high in the sky, and sets late; as the sun does in the
summer. In the summer the full moon rises in the southeastern part of the sky (Northern

Hemisphere), remains relatively low in the sky, and sets along the southwestern horizon after a short
time above the horizon.
At the time of the autumnal equinox, the part of the ecliptic opposite the sun is most nearly parallel to
the horizon. Since the eastward motion of the moon is approximately along the ecliptic, the delay in
the time of rising of the full moon from night to night is less than at other times of the year.
The Earths elliptical orbit, and Approximate perihelion and aphelion distances and dates
The earth travels round the sun in an orbit, which is slightly elliptical. Its plane being called the
Ecliptic, because eclipses happen only when the moon crosses it.
The above shows the earth in its orbit, viewed from an elevation above the plane of the ecliptic, the
sun is not exactly at the centre of the ellipse and the earth is shown at the four extremities of the
ellipse.
The ecliptic is thus an imaginary plane that cuts the earth and the sun in halves.
The earths distance from the sun varies, It is maximum when it is farthest away aphelion (about
4th July) about 93.5 million miles, and nearest perihelion (1 st January) - distance is 90.5 million
miles.
Due to the above we see the sun as slightly larger at perihelion and slightly smaller at aphelion. This
is the reason that the semi diameter of the sun changes from max. of 16.3 to 15.8 of the arc.

Eccentricity of the earths orbit

The force of gravity determines the way the planets and the sun move. As a result of gravity, bodies
attract each other in proportion to their masses and to the inverse square of the distances between
them. This force causes the planets to go around the sun in nearly circular, elliptical orbits.
The sun is not exactly at the centre of the orbit of the earth, which is an ellipse; this is the reason why
the earth swings from perihelion to aphelion.
The inclination of the earths axis to the plane of the orbit and the stability of the axis (ignoring
precession) Cause of seasons
If the earths axis were perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic the sun would be over the equator
throughout the year and then we would not have any seasonal changes.
But, the earths axis is not perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, it is tilted at an angle of 2326.
The axis of the earth may be assumed to be pointing fixedly in one direction in space, about the
direction of the pole star.
Due to this tilting of the earths axis from the perpendicular, the sun bobs up and along from the earths
equator.
Thus when the sun reaches its maximum northerly travel along the ecliptic, when the declination is
23.5N, it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere. And when the sun reaches its maximum southerly
travel, when the declination is 23.5S, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
At 23.5N the sun therefore is overhead on earth, the 23.5N latitude on earth where the sun is
overhead is called the Tropic of Cancer.
Similarly the Southern 23.5S latitude is called the Tropic of Capricorn.

Please note that actually the sun does not travel but it is the earth that does the travelling, but we
from earth view the sun to be moving apparently.
Declination may thus be defined as the angular distance of the sun North or South of the equator.
Dates of the solstices and equinoxes
The solstices are two points in the ecliptic where the sun reaches its maximum (23.5) North or South
declination. The summer solstice is on June 21st and the winter solstice is on December 22nd.
Concept of the earths axial rotation giving day and night
As the earth spins on its axis, only one half of the earths surface faces the sun. Therefore only that
half receives the light and heat of the sun, this half is experiencing daylight and the half that is on the
other side - the dark side it is Nighttime.
As the earth rotates more areas come within daylight and other area on the days edge move into
darkness or night.
Varying length of daylight through the year
If the earths axis were not tilted, then the sun would be always above the equator, in that case the
sun would rise and set at the same time everywhere throughout the year, However, when it is
summer in the Northern hemisphere the sun is overhead or nearly overhead at 23.5N, the footprint of
the sun therefore is more encompassing the Northern Hemisphere and the days are longer in the
Northern Hemisphere.
But when the sun moves down south and is at 23.5S the place in the Northern Hemisphere are not
at the centre of the footprint but at the edge of it, the days are therefore shorter.
Daylight and darkness conditions in various latitudes at the solstices and equinoxes
Due to the tilt in the axis of the earth, the sun apparently moves along the ecliptic and at 23,5N
declination more of the Northern Hemisphere is facing the sun, more heat and light are received by
the northern hemisphere, summer is then being experienced in the northern hemisphere, with more
daylight and less darkness.
But with the earth continuing its journey, the apparent sun starts to move southward and on
September 28th Autumnal Equinox (equal nights), the sun is shining is overhead at the equator, the
days and night are of equal duration.
On the 22nd of December the sun is overhead on the Tropic of Capricorn - latitude of 23.5S, it is
summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the northern hemisphere. The days are shorter and
nights longer in the Northern Hemisphere.
After this the earth continues its journey and on March 21 st the sun again is overhead at the equator
Vernal Equinox and the days and night are of equal duration.
The significance of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles
Due to the tilt in the axis of the earth, the suns apparent motion in the sky during the year is from
latitude 23.5N to 23.5S. Thus the sun is overhead at latitude 23.5N on June 21 st and overhead at
latitude 23.5S on 22nd December. Between these two latitudes lie the area which receives the
maximum heat and light from the sun and they are termed as the Torrid Zone, the 23.5N latitude is
known as the Tropic of Capricorn and the 23.5S latitude is termed the Tropic of Cancer.
The parallels about 23.5 from the poles, marking the approximate limits of the circumpolar sun, are
called polar circles, the one in the Northern Hemisphere being the Arctic Circle and the one in the

Southern Hemisphere the Antarctic Circle. The areas inside the polar circles are the north and south
frigid zones. The regions between the frigid zones and the torrid zones are the north and south
temperate zones.

Venus as morning and evening star

If you're one of the millions who give attention to astrology, or have had your birth chart drawn
and interpreted, you probably know the zodiacal sign and natal house occupied by Venus at the time
of your birth. The natal house in which Venus was located at birth shows the particular set of human
experiences through which youremotional life, feeling nature and sense of values, fueled by the
type of energy symbolized by Venus' sign, best operates.
But a house and sign examination is not the most fundamental astrological key revealing your
Venusian nature. This article presents a basic, easy-to-use technique to determine and interpret your
Venus type. It is based on viewing the 584-day cycle between the Sun and Venus as a whole.
Readers of my series on mental types, The Four Faces of Mercury, will recognized that the Venus
cycle follows a pattern similar to the cycle of Mercury, but with some important and very intriguing
variations.
The approximately 116-day cycle of the Sun and Mercury deals with mental processes,
associations and attitudes, while the cycle of Venus symbolizes emotional processes and
attitudes, as well as our value-and-meaning-giving faculties that is, how we interpret, evaluate
and make sense of our life-experiences and the world around us. Whereas Mercury is the neutral and
asexual planet, the servant and messenger of other planets and their functions, Venus is assigned a
feminine polarity; it represents the set of values motivating our actions (Mars) and guiding our mental
processes and use of knowledge (Mercury). But the most unique and fascinating feature of the cycle
of Venus is the remarkable way it conforms, cycle after cycle, to a five-fold pattern.
The Cycle of Venus and Its Five-Fold Pattern
Because the orbit of Venus lies within Earth's, from our geocentric point of view Venus always leads
or follows the Sun by no more than 47.5 degrees. Another special feature of the Venus cycle (which it
shares with the Mercury cycle, because the two bodies both lie within earth's orbit) is that Venus
forms two very different types of geocentric conjunctions with the Sun the inferior conjunction
and the superior conjunction. A Venus cycle begins at the inferior conjunction, when Venus is exactly
between the Sun and the Earth. At the superior conjunction, which is equivalent to the opposition
aspect, Venus is on the far side of the Sun, with the Sun standing exactly between the Earth and
Venus.
The inferior conjunction, equivalent to the New Moon phase of the lunation cycle, occurs when
Venus is in the middle of its retrograde cycle and moving quite slowly across the zodiac. It is then
nearest to the Earth and, from our point of view, dark. Rising before the Sun, Venus appears in the
pre-dawn sky about a week after the inferior conjunction, when the Sun and Venus are about ten
degrees apart. As a herald of the new day, Venus is called Phosphorus andLucifer, the latter name
meaning "light bearer."

Venus turns direct about three weeks after the inferior conjunction. Thirty-six days after the inferior
conjunction,Venus is most brilliant in the morning sky. Thirty-six days more, Venus reaches its
maximum distance from the Sun. At this time, Venus is moving through the zodiac at the same speed
as the Sun, and gaining.
Two-hundred and sixteen days (or 6 x 36 days) later, Venus reaches its superior conjunction with
the Sun, when it is moving close to its maximum of speed of about 115' per day. For several
weeks before and after the superior conjunction, however, Venus is so close to the Sun in the sky that
it is no longer visible. Venus is furthest from the Earth at superior conjunction, which is equivalent to
the opposition aspect and the Full Moon phase of the lunation cycle. The superior conjunction
inaugurates the hemicycle in which Venus plays the role of the Evening Star, Hesperus, which
means western. Thirty-six days after the superior conjunction, when the Sun and Venus are about ten
zodiacal degrees apart, Venus first appears in the evening sky, setting after the Sun.
Two-hundred and sixteen days (6 x 36 days) after the superior conjunction, Venus again reaches
its maximum distance from the Sun about 47 degrees, but maximum elongation varies slightly from
cycle to cycle. It occurs when the motion of Venus equals the Sun's, and is slowing. Thirty-six days
later (which is also thirty-six days before the next inferior conjunction), Venus is most brilliant,
outshining all other objects in the evening sky . Then, about two weeks later, Venus begins its fortyday retrograde journey, in the middle of which occurs the inferior conjunction, the birth of new cycle.
But about twelve days before the inferior conjunction Venus becomes no longer visible in the sky.
Because Venus rotates one-hundred and eighty degrees on its polar axis between inferior
conjunctions, at each superior conjunction Venus shows Earth the face that during the inferior
conjunction faced the Sun, while the side that was facing the Earth during the conjunction now faces
the Sun. But this is not the most extraordinary feature of the Venus cycle. When one plots the cycle of
any important turning point of the cycle of Venus for five or more consecutive cycles, a remarkable
pattern forcefully emerges a five-pointed star!
So many factors figure into the remarkably stable five-fold structure of the Venus cycle that we can
only outline here a few of the most important. The most striking features of the pentadic structure
include: 1) a superior conjunction occurs very near to 648 degrees (one complete circuit around the
zodiac plus 288 degrees or four points of a five-pointed star) from the inferior conjunction which
opened its cycle; 2) successive inferior conjunctions occur about 936 degrees zodiacal degrees apart
that's two circuits around the zodiac, plus 216 degrees or three points of a five-pointed star; 3) this
patterns repeats itself in terms of the zodiacal degrees on which Venus turns retrograde and direct, as
well as the degrees of greatest brightness and maximum elongation; 4) a complete pentagram is
formed after five complete cycles, totaling two days, eight hours short of eight years; 5) successive
five-cycle sets identically repeat the pattern, with an offset of only two zodiacal degrees; and 6)the
star pattern created by five Venus cycle rotates backwards through the zodiac, completing an entire
round once every 760 Venus cycles, which adds up to about 1,215 years.
Additionally, phenomenon of Venus occur in steps of thirty-six days or in multiples of thirty-six.
Maximum brightness occurs thirty-six days after the inferior conjunction; the next step, maximum
elongation occurs thirty-six days later; and the superior conjunction occurs 216 days (or 6 x 36 days)
after maximum elongation. In the evening star phase, maximum elongation occurs 216 days after the
superior conjunction; maximum brightness takes place thirty-six days following maximum elongation
and thirty-six days more brings the inferior conjunction.

The Celestial Sphere

The rising and setting points of celestial bodies (sun, moon, stars, and planets) are determined by
their positions on the celestial sphere.
The celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere with the earth at its center. The sky overhead is the half
of the sphere we see from earth, appearing as a dome (even though the sky extends infinitely into
space). The other half of the sphere is below the circle of the horizon.

The sphere appears to be rotating from east to west every twenty-four hours, so celestial bodies
appear to rise in the east and set in the west. (The earth's rotation creates the illusion that the
celestial sphere is rotating.)

The Celestial Sphere "rotates" on the Celestial Axis, which goes through earths north and south
poles and extends out to the Celestial Sphere intersecting it at the North Celestial Pole (NCP) and the
south Celestial Pole (SCP).
The Celestial Equator is an imaginary line around the middle of the Celestial Sphere, equidistant from
the NCP and SCP and on the same plane as the earth's equator. It intersects the Circle of the
Horizon at East and due West.
Orienting the Observer to the Celestial Sphere Using Other Imaginary Lines and Points.
The Circle of the Horizon surrounds the earth-bound observer, who is standing in the middle of it.
Points on the horizon are called directions. The horizon circle is divided into 360s, with 90s between
each of the four cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West.
The Zenith is the point on the Celestial Sphere directly above the observer.
The Meridian is an imaginary circle passing through the Zenith and NCP and SCP and is always
perpendicular to the horizon.
Position of Stars on the Celestial Sphere
Stars appear fixed on the Celestial Sphere as it rotates. Their coordinates are given in two numbers,
Declination and Right Ascension, which represent imaginary lines, like latitude and longitude on the
earths surface. The intersection of the Declination and Right Ascension lines gives a point that
represents the position of a body on the Celestial Sphere.
1. Declination equals the angle of a star away from the Celestial Equator with the vertex (the common
endpoint of the angle) being the center of the earth). A celestial body on the Celestial Equator has a
declination of 0 and rises due East and sets due West. (The sun at Vernal and Autumnal Equinox has
a declination of 0.)
Celestial bodies to the north of the Celestial Equator have positive declinations of up to +90s, which
is the declination of the NCP. Hokupaa, the North Star, near the NCP, has a declination of +89.3s.
With the observer at the equator, a star with a declination of +45s would rise in the NE and set in the
NW. (See Chart Above.)
Celestial bodies south of Celestial Equator have negative declinations of up to 90s, which is the
declination of the SCP. With the observer at the equator, a star with a declination of 45s would rise
in the SE and set in the SW.
2. Right Ascension [RA], gives the position of a celestial body in relationship to lines from the NCP to
the SCP, intersecting the Celestial Equator halfway in between at right angles. (These lines are like
longitude lines, which run between the North and South Poles on Earth and intersect the Earths
Equator perpendicularly.)
The zero point for RA on the Celestial Equator is the position of the sun at vernal equinox, called the
vernal point. RA is given in hours (h) and minutes (m), with 0 and 24h equal to the same point. 24

hours is used because the earth is rotating, once every 24 hours, which equals one revolution of the
Earth / Celestial Sphere / Celestial Equator.
One hour = 15s. So a star at the horizon rising in the East will take one hour to rotate up on the
Celestial Sphere 15s above the Eastern Horizon; 24 hours later it will be back rising in the East. A
star 15s above the Western horizon on the Celestial Equator will take one hour to reach the Western
horizon and set.
At the vernal point, the sun is near the constellation of Pisces on the Celestial Sphere. Stars in this
constellation have a RA near 0. Omega Piscium, for example, has an RA of 23h 59m, almost at 0. A
star on the opposite side of the celestial sphere have RAs around 12h. For example, Denebola, in the
constellation Leo, the house of the sun at fall equinox, has a RA of 11h 49m.
How the Latitude where the Observer is Located Affects the Rising and Setting of Stars
At the Equator (middle diagram in the chart below) the Celestial Equator intersects the Circle of the
Horizon at a right angle and celestial bodies appear to rise and set perpendicularly. The NCP and
SCP are on the horizon, due North and South. The stars around the NCP and SCP appear to rise and
set in half circles, above the horizon for 12 hours.

As the observer moves farther north from the equator, the curvature of the earth reveals more and
more of the sky around the NCP and less and less of the sky around the SCP. The angle of the
Celestial Equator tilts to the south in relationship to the plane of the horizon. The angle of the tilt is
equal to the latitude of the observer. Thus in Hawaii, at 20 N (left diagram in the chart above), the
Celestial Equator is tilted 20 toward the south. The NCP appears 20 above the horizon due north,
while the SCP is unseen, 20 below the Horizon due south.
Moving south from the equator has the opposite effect (right diagram in the chart above, at 20 S, in
for example, Atiu, in the Cook Islands.) The angle of the Celestial Equator in relationship to the plane
of the horizon tilts 20 toward the north. The SCP appears 20 above the horizon due south, while the
NCP is unseen, 20 below the horizon due north.

Circumpolar Stars
At 20 N, celestial bodies with declinations within 20 of the NCP (i.e. +70 to +90s) will no longer rise
or set. They appear to be circling the NCP and are called circumpolar.

Holopuni (Kochab), with a declination of +74, is circumpolar.

Celestial bodies with declinations within 20 of the SCP (i.e. 70 to 90s) cannot be seen at 20
north in Hawaii, as they circle the SCP below the horizon, unseen, without rising or setting.
Because the SCP is 20 below the horizon, stars that rise and set near south move across the sky in
low arcs rather than half circles:

As the observer continues toward the NCP from 20 north, more and more of the stars around the
NCP become circumpolar, and less and less of the sky around the SCP is seen. At the north pole, all
celestial bodies (0 to +90 declinations) are circumpolar, traveling around the observer without rising

or setting, like animals on a merry-go-round; and all celestial bodies, with 0 to 90 declinations,
would remain unseen, circling the SCP below the horizon.
Due to the tilting of the Celestial Sphere and Equator relative to the horizon when the observer is
north or south of the earths equator, celestial bodies appear to rise and set at an angle. (Their rising
and setting are always parallel to the celestial equator.) The angle is equal to the latitude of the
observer. At 20 N, a celestial body will rise at an angle 20 south (to the right) from a perpendicular
line intersecting the horizon at the point where the star rose from the horizon; a celestial body will set
at an angle 20 S (to the left) from a perpendicular line intersecting the horizon at the point where the
star will set at the horizon.

As the observer moves toward the poles, the angles of rising and setting of the stars will tilt closer
and closer to the horizon until at the poles, the stars became circumpolar.
At the equator, the declination of a celestial body equals the angle away from east and west (i.e. the
direction in degrees) at which it rises and sets. As the observer moves north or south of the equator,
the angle away from east and west that a celestial body rises and sets increases for celestial bodies
toward the NCP and SCP. Thus, a celestial body that rises at NE by N and sets at NW by N at the
equator, rises at NNE (rather than NE by N) and sets at NNW (rather than NW by N) at a higher
latitude.
How Earth's Orbiting the Sun Affects the Suns Position on the Celestial Sphere.
As the earth orbits the sun over the year, the sun appears to move on the celestial sphere against the
background of the fixed stars. (Another illusion: it's the earth and the observer moving around the sun
rather than the sun changing its position.) The curving path the sun seems to follow is called the
ecliptic, which passes through a series of twelve constellations called the Zodiac.
Because the earth is tilted at a 23.5 angle, the path is not straight; it has two curves in it. From March
to September, the sun appears to be north of the Celestial Equator, among the constellations of
Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo. From September to March, it appears south of the
Celestial Equator, in the constellations of Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagitarius, Capricorn and Aquarius.
The suns position crosses the Celestial Equator at Spring and Fall Equinox.

Because the position of the sun in relationship to the Celestial Equator changes over the year, so
does its declination and rising and setting point on the horizon. At spring and fall equinox the sun has
a declination of 0 and rises due East and sets due West. At summer solstice, when the sun is at its
farthest position north of the Celestial Equator, it rises at ENE (Aina Koolau in the chart below) and
sets at WNW, with a declination of +23.5. The 23.5 maximum for the position of the sun at rising
and setting is equivalent to the tilt of the earth on its axis. At winter solstice, when the sun appears to
be south of the Celestial Equator, the sun rises at ESE and sets at WSW, with a declination of 23.5.

The sun rising at different times of the year in Hawaii

How the Moon's Orbiting the Earth Affects the Moons Position on the Celestial Sphere.
As the moon orbits the earth, its position, like the suns, changes on the Celestial Sphere. Like the
sun, the moons position appears to travel along the path called the Ecliptic, through the twelve
constellations of the Zodiac. Unlike the sun, which takes a year to complete its journey, the moon
completes its journey through the zodiac in 29.5 days the time it takes for it to orbit the earth once.
It deviates from the ecliptic on either side by about 5s, crossing it twice.

As it passes around the earth on the ecliptic, the amount of sunlight the observer on earth sees on
the moons surface depends on where the moon is in relationship to the sun and the observer. When
the moon is on the opposite side of the sky from the sun, with the observer in between, the moon

appears fully lit by the sun; when the moon moves away from the sun, it appears less than full. When
it is on the same side of the sky as the sun, between the observer on earth and the sun, the observer
sees the unlit side of the moon and it appears dark. As it moves closes to the sun again, it begins to
lose its fullness. (See The Hawaiian Lunar Mont.)
As the moons position shifts north and south of the Celestial Equator along the ecliptic on its 29.5
day cycle, it rises and sets about 48 minutes later each night, at a different position on the horizon
from where it rose the night before. Its rising point moves back and forth between ENE ('Aina Ko'olau)
and ESE ('Aina Malanai); its setting point between WNW ('Aina Ho'olua) and WSW ('Aina Kona).
The moons position on the celesital sphere can be determined with the help of the fixed stars, that is,
by observing where the moon is in relationship to the stars around it. Once its position is determined,
the moon can be used in navigation.
The Planets
The planets ("wanderers"), orbiting the sun, like the sun and moon, appear to move among the fixed
stars over time; hence, their Hawaiian names hoku hele, "Traveling Stars", or hoku 'ae'a, "Wandering
Stars." Their rising and setting points can be determined from nearby stars; they can be used for
navigation once their positions have been determined.
The Hawaiian names for the visible planets are:

Mercury: Ukaliali'i ("Following the chief," i.e. the Sun)

Venus: Hokuloa ("Long Star"), Hokuao ("Morning Star"), Hokuahiahi ("Evening Star"), Hokuali'i
("Chiefly Star"), Hokuali'iwahine ("Chiefly [female] Star")

Mars: Hoku'ula ("Red Star"), Holoholopina'au, 'Aukelenuiaiku ("Great travelling swimmer, son
of Iku")

Saturn: Makulu ("A drop of mist")

Jupiter: Aohoku ("Starlight"), 'Iao ("Dawn"), Ikaika ("Strong," "Powerful")

The planets orbiting the earth closer to the sun than earth (i.e., Mercury and Venus) appear near sun
in the sky. When it sets after the sun, Venus is known as the Evening Star in the west; when it rises
before the sun, it's called the Morning Star.
Geography and Direction
To be guided to a destination by the stars, a navigator needs to have a method to steer his canoe by
the stars in order to hold a course; and he needs to know in what direction his desintation lies in
relationship to his present location. Before leaving, he designs a course stategy for getting to that
desintation.

Celestial Navigation
Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the ancient art and science of position fixing
that enables a navigator to transition through a space without having to rely on estimated
calculations, or dead reckoning, to know his or her position. Celestial navigation uses "sights," or
angular measurements taken between a celestial body (the sun, the moon, a planet or a star) and the
visible horizon. The sun is most commonly used, but navigators can also use the moon, a planet or
one of 57 navigational stars whose coordinates are tabulated in theNautical Almanac and Air
Almanacs.
Celestial navigation is the use of angular measurements (sights) between celestial bodies and the
visible horizon to locate one's position on the globe, on land as well as at sea. At a given time, any
celestial body is located directly over one point on the Earth's surface. The latitude and longitude of
that point is known as the celestial bodys geographic position (GP), the location of which can be
determined from tables in the Nautical or Air Almanac for that year.
The measured angle between the celestial body and the visible horizon is directly related to the
distance between the celestial body's GP and the observer's position. After some computations,
referred to as "sight reduction," this measurement is used to plot a line of position (LOP) on
a navigational chart or plotting work sheet, the observer's position being somewhere on that line. (The
LOP is actually a short segment of a very large circle on the earth which surrounds the GP of the
observed celestial body. An observer located anywhere on the circumference of this circle on the
earth, measuring the angle of the same celestial body above the horizon at that instant of time, would
observe that body to be at the same angle above the horizon.) Sights on two celestial bodies give two
such lines on the chart, intersecting at the observer's position (actually, the two circles would result in
two points of intersection arising from sights on two stars described above, but one can be discarded
since it will be far from the estimated positionsee the figure at "example" below). Most navigators
will use sights of three to five stars, if they're available, since that will result in only one common
intersection and minimize the chance for error. That premise is the basis for the most commonly used
method of celestial navigation, and is referred to as the "Altitude-Intercept Method."
There are several other methods of celestial navigation which will also provide position finding
using sextant observations, such as the "Noon Sight", and the more archaic Lunar Distance
method. Joshua Slocum used the Lunar Distance method during the first ever recorded singlehanded circumnavigation of the world. Unlike the Altitude-Intercept Method, the noon sight and lunar
distance methods do not require accurate knowledge of time. The altitude-intercept method of
celestial navigation requires that the observer know exact Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) at the
moment of his observation of the celestial body, to the secondsince every four seconds that the

time source (commonly a chronometer or in aircraft, an accurate "hack watch") is in error, the position
will be off by approximately one nautical mile.

Practical navigation
Practical celestial navigation usually requires a marine chronometer to measure time, a sextant to
measure the angles, an almanac giving schedules of the coordinates of celestial objects, a set of
sight reduction tables to help perform the height and azimuth computations, and a chart of the region.
With sight reduction tables, the only calculations required are addition and subtraction. Small
handheld computers, laptops and even scientific calculators enable modern navigators to "reduce"
sextant sights in minutes, by automating all the calculation and/or data lookup steps. Most people can
master simpler celestial navigation procedures after a day or two of instruction and practice, even
using manual calculation methods.
Modern practical navigators usually use celestial navigation in combination with satellite navigation to
correct a dead reckoning track, that is, a course estimated from a vessel's position, course and
speed. Using multiple methods helps the navigator detect errors, and simplifies procedures. When
used this way, a navigator will from time to time measure the sun's altitude with a sextant, then
compare that with a precalculated altitude based on the exact time and estimated position of the
observation. On the chart, one will use the straight edge of a plotter to mark each position line. If the
position line shows one to be more than a few miles from the estimated position, one may take more
observations to restart the dead-reckoning track.
In the event of equipment or electrical failure, one can get to a port by simply taking sun lines a few
times a day and advancing them by dead reckoning to get a crude running fix.

Latitude
Latitude was measured in the past either at noon (the "noon sight") or from Polaris, the north star
(assuming it is sufficiently visible above the horizon, which it is not in the Southern Hemisphere).
Polaris always stays within 1 degree of the celestial north pole. If a navigator measures the angle to
Polaris and finds it to be 10 degrees from the horizon, then he is about 10 degrees north of the
equator. Angles are measured from the horizon because locating the point directly overhead,
the zenith, is difficult. When haze obscures the horizon, navigators use artificial horizons, which
are bubble levels reflected into a sextant.

Latitude can also be determined by the direction in which the stars travel over time. If the stars rise
out of the east and travel straight up you are at the equator, but if they drift south you are to the north
of the equator. The same is true of the day-to-day drift of the stars due to the movement of the Earth
in orbit around the Sun; each day a star will drift approximately one degree. In either case if the drift
can be measured accurately, simple trigonometry will reveal the latitude.

Longitude
Longitude can be measured in the same way. If one can accurately measure the angle to Polaris, a
similar measurement to a star near the eastern or western horizons will provide the longitude. The
problem is that the Earth turns 15 degrees per hour, making such measurements dependent on time.
A measure a few minutes before or after the same measure the day before creates serious navigation
errors. Before good chronometers were available, longitude measurements were based on the transit
of the moon, or the positions of the moons of Jupiter. For the most part, these were too difficult to be
used by anyone except professional astronomers. The invention of the modern chronometer by John
Harrison in 1761 vastly simplified longitudinal calculation.
The longitude problem took centuries to solve and was dependent on the construction of a nonpendulum clock (as pendulum clocks cannot function accurately on a tilting ship, or indeed a moving
vehicle of any kind). Two useful methods evolved during the 18th century and are still practised
today: lunar distance, which does not involve the use of a chronometer, and use of an accurate
timepiece or chronometer.
Presently, lay person calculations of longitude can be made by noting the exact local time (leaving out
any reference for Daylight Savings Time) when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. The
calculation of noon can be made more easily and accurately with a small, exactly vertical rod driven
into level groundtake the time reading when the shadow is pointing due north (in the northern
hemisphere). Then take your local time reading and subtract it from GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or
the time in east London. For example, a noon reading (1200 hours) near Central Canada or the
U.S.A. would occur at approximately 6 pm (1800 hours) in London. The six hour differential is 1/4 of a
24 hour day, or 90 degrees of a 360 degree circle (the Earth). The calculation can also be made by
taking the number of hours (use decimals for fractions of an hour) multiplied by 15, the number of
degrees in one hour. Either way, you can demonstrate that much of central USA or Canada is at or
near 90 degrees West Longitude. Eastern longitudes can be determined by adding the local time to
GMT, with similar calculations.

Lunar distance
The older method, called "lunar distances", was refined in the 18th century. It is only used today by
sextant hobbyists and historians, but the method is theoretically sound, and can be used when a
timepiece is not available or its accuracy is suspect during a long sea voyage. The navigator precisely
measures the angle between the moon and the sun, or between the moon and one of several stars
near the ecliptic. The angle naturally will depend on the navigator's position (which he doesn't know)
but he can still hope to correct the angle well enough to use the tables that give the corresponding
angle as viewed from the center of the earth at a given Greenwich time. The navigator would thumb
through the almanac to find the angle he measured, and thus know the time at Greenwich. Modern
handheld and laptop calculators can perform the calculation in minutes, allowing the navigator to use
other celestial bodies than the old nine. Knowing Greenwich time, the navigator can work out his
longitude.

Use of time
The considerably more popular method was (and still is) to use an accurate timepiece to directly
measure the time of a sextant sight. The need for accurate navigation led to the development of
progressively more accurate chronometers in the 18th century. (See John Harrison) Today, time is
measured with a chronometer, a quartz watch, a shortwave radio time signal broadcast from
an atomic clock, or the time displayed on a GPS.[1] A quartz wristwatch normally keeps time within a
half-second per day.[citation needed] If it is worn constantly, keeping it near body heat, its rate of drift can be
measured with the radio, and by compensating for this drift, a navigator can keep time to better than a
second per month.[citation needed] Traditionally, a navigator checked his chronometer from his sextant, at a
geographic marker surveyed by a professional astronomer.[citation needed] This is now a rare skill, and
most harbour masters cannot locate their harbour's marker.[citation needed]
Traditionally, three chronometers were kept in gimbals in a dry room near the centre of the ship.[citation
needed]
They were used to set a watch for the actual sight, so that no chronometers were ever exposed
to the wind and salt water on deck.[citation needed] Winding and comparing the chronometers was a crucial
duty of the navigator.[citation needed] Even today, it is still logged daily in the ship's deck log and reported to
the Captain prior to eight bells on the forenoon watch (shipboard noon). [citation needed] Navigators also set
the ship's clocks and calendar.[citation needed]

Modern celestial navigation

The celestial line of position concept was discovered in 1837 by Thomas Hubbard Sumner when,
after one observation he computed and plotted his longitude at more than one trial latitude in his
vicinity and noticed that the positions lay along a line. Using this method with two bodies, navigators
were finally able to cross two position lines and obtain their position in effect determining both
latitude and longitude. Later in the 19th century came the development of the modern (Marcq St.

Hilaire) intercept method; with this method the body height and azimuth are calculated for a
convenient trial position, and compared with the observed height. The difference in arcminutes is the
nautical mile "intercept" distance that the position line needs to be shifted toward or away from the
direction of the body's subpoint. (The intercept method uses the concept illustrated in the example in
the How it works section above.) Two other methods of reducing sights are thelongitude by
chronometer and the ex-meridian method.
While celestial navigation is becoming increasingly redundant with the advent of inexpensive and
highly accurate satellite navigation receivers (GPS), it was used extensively in aviation until the
1960s, and marine navigation until quite recently. But since a prudent mariner never relies on any
sole means of fixing his position, many national maritime authorities still require deck officers to show
knowledge of celestial navigation in examinations, primarily as a back-up for electronic navigation.
One of the most common current usages of celestial navigation aboard large merchant vessels is for
compass calibration and error checking at sea when no terrestrial references are available.
The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy continued instructing military aviators on its use until 1997,
because:

it can be used independently of ground aids

has global coverage

cannot be jammed (although it can be obscured by clouds)

does not give off any signals that could be detected by an enemy

[2]

The US Naval Academy announced that it was discontinuing its course on celestial navigation,
considered to be one of its most demanding course, from the formal curriculum in the spring of 1998
stating that a sextant is accurate to a three-mile (5 km) radius, while a satellite-linked computer can
pinpoint a ship within 60 feet (18 m) as long as the satellites are functioning correctly. Presently,
midshipmen continue to learn to use the sextant, but instead of performing a tedious 22-step
mathematical calculation to plot a ship's course, midshipmen feed the raw data into a computer.
[3]
Contrary to media reports, the US Naval Academy continues to practice celestial navigation as
members of the USNA Varsity Offshore Sailing Team (VOST) and competes in the celestial spinnaker
division in the bi-annual Marion-Bermuda Race racing aboard the venerable Navy 44 sail training
craft. The Naval Academy Sailing Squadron (NASS) that consists of both the Offshore Sail Training
Squadron (OSTS) and VOST crews use both long forms with paper plotting sheets and electronic
celestial applications. Celestial navigation certification [4] is required to achieve the highest "E"
qualification at NASS. At another federal service academy, the US Merchant Marine Academy,
students are still taught courses in celestial navigation, as it is required to pass the US Coast Guard
License Exam.
Likewise, celestial navigation was used in commercial aviation up until the early part of the jet age; it
was only phased out in the 1960s with the advent of inertial navigation and doppler navigation

systems, and today's satellite based systems which can locate the aircraft's position accurate to a 3meter sphere with several updates per second.
Celestial navigation continues to be taught to cadets during their training in the Merchant Navy and
remains as a requirement for their certificate of competency.
A variation on terrestrial celestial navigation was used to help orient the Apollo spacecraft en route to
and from the Moon. To this day, space missions, such as the Mars Exploration Rover usestar
trackers to determine the attitude of the spacecraft.
As early as the mid-1960s, advanced electronic and computer systems had evolved enabling
navigators to obtain automated celestial sight fixes. These systems were used aboard both ships as
well as US Air Force aircraft, and were highly accurate, able to lock onto up to 11 stars (even in
daytime) and resolve the craft's position to less than 300 feet (91 m). The SR-71 highspeedreconnaissance aircraft was one example of an aircraft that used automated celestial
navigation. These rare systems were expensive, however, and the few that remain in use today are
regarded as backups to more reliable satellite positioning systems.
Celestial navigation continues to be used by private yachtsmen, and particularly by long-distance
cruising yachts around the world. For small cruising boat crews, celestial navigation is generally
considered an essential skill when venturing beyond visual range of land. Although GPS (Global
Positioning System) technology is reliable, offshore yachtsmen use celestial navigation as either a
primary navigational tool or as a backup.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles use celestial navigation to check and correct their course (initially set
using internal gyroscopes) while outside the Earth's atmosphere. The immunity to jamming signals is
the main driver behind this apparently archaic technique.
Time Diagram
(astronomy) A diagram in which the celestial equator appears as a circle, and celestial meridians and
hour circles as radial lines; used to facilitate solution of time problems and other problems involving
arcs of the celestial equator or angles at the pole, by indicating relations between various quantities
involved; conventionally, the relationships are given as viewed from a point over the South Pole, in a
westward direction or counterclockwise. Also known as diagram on the plane of the celestial equator;
diagram on the plane of the equinoctial.

Or diagram on the plane of the equinoctial

3. is a circle whose center represents the South pole, whose rim is the Equator and whose
radius is a meridian.
4. The most useful aid in visualizing any time and date problem and shows the relative
positions of the meridians and hour circles involved in a particular problem.
TIME DIAGRAM
5. M- upper branch of observers meridian
m- lower branch of observers

G- upper branch of Greenwich meridian

g- lower branch of Greenwich meridian

6. The longitude of the observer indicates the position of Greenwich Meridian. If the longitude is
east, Greenwich meridian is west of Local meridian and if longitude is west, Greenwich meridian is
east of Local time meridian

7. Local Hour Angle (LHA)- is measured from the local meridian westward through 360

8. Greenwich Hour Angle (GHA) is measured from the Greenwich meridian westward through 360

9. Sidereal Hour Angle (SHA) is measured from the first Point of Aries westward through 360.

10. Meridian Angle (t) is measured from the local meridian eastward or westward through 180 and
labeled E or W to indicate the direction of
measurement.

11. Right ascension is measured from the Vertical Equinox(First of Aries) eastward through
24 hours.

Chronometer
A marine chronometer is a clock that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time
standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. When first
developed in the 18th century, it was a major technical achievement, as accurate knowledge of the
time over a long sea voyage is necessary for navigation, lacking electronic or communications aids.
The first true chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of
persistent experimentation and testing that revolutionized naval (and later aerial) navigation and
enabling the Age of Discovery and Colonialism to accelerate.
The term chronometer (apparently coined in 1714 by Jeremy Thacker, an early competitor for the
prize set by the Longitude Act in the same year)[1]is used more recently to describe wristwatches
tested and certified to meet certain precision standards. Timepieces made in Switzerland may display
the word 'chronometer' only if certified by the COSC (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute).

History
To determine a position on the Earth's surface, it is necessary and sufficient to know
the latitude, longitude, and altitude. Altitude considerations can, of course, be ignored for vessels
operating at sea level. Until the mid-1750s, accurate navigation at sea out of sight of land was an
unsolved problem due to the difficulty in calculating longitude. Navigators could determine their
latitude by measuring the sun's angle at noon (i.e., when it reached its highest point in the sky,
or culmination) or, in the Northern Hemisphere, to measure the angle of Polaris (the North Star) from
the horizon (usually during twilight). To find their longitude, however, they needed a time standard that
would work aboard a ship. Observation of regular celestial motions, such as Galileo's method based
on observing Jupiter's natural satellites, was usually not possible at sea due to the ship's motion.
The Lunar Distance Method, initially proposed by Johannes Werner in 1514, was developed in
parallel with the marine chronometer. The Dutch scientist Gemma Frisius was the first to propose the
use of a chronometer to determine longitude in 1530.
The purpose of a chronometer is to measure accurately the time of a known fixed location, for
example Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This is particularly important for navigation. Knowing GMT at
local noon allows a navigator to use the time difference between the ship's position and
the Greenwich Meridian to determine the ship's longitude. As the Earth rotates at a regular rate, the
time difference between the chronometer and the ship's local time can be used to calculate the
longitude of the ship relative to the Greenwich Meridian (defined as 0) using spherical trigonometry.
In modern practice, anautical almanac and trigonometric sight-reduction tables permit navigators to
measure the Sun, Moon, visible planets, or any of 57 navigational stars at any time that the horizon is
visible.

Sextant
A sextant is an instrument used to measure
the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary
use is
to determine the angle between a celestial
object and the horizon which is known as the
object's altitude. Using this measurement is
known as sighting the object, shooting the
object, or taking a sight and it is an essential part
of celestial navigation. The angle, and
the time when it was measured, can be
used to calculate a position line on a nautical or
aeronautical chart. Common uses of the
sextant include sighting the sun at solar noon and sighting Polaris at night (in the Northern
Hemisphere), to find one's latitude. Sighting the height of a landmark can give a measure of distance
off and, held horizontally, a sextant can measure angles between objects for a position on a chart.[1] A
sextant can also be used to measure the lunar distance between the moon and another celestial

object (e.g., star, planet) in order to determine Greenwich Mean Time which is important because it
can then be used to determine the longitude.
The scale of a sextant has a length of 16 of a turn (60); hence the sextant's name (sextns, -antis is
the Latin word for "one sixth"). An octant is a similar device with a shorter scale (18 turn, or 45),
where as a quintant (15 turn, or 72) and a quadrant (14 turn, or 90) have longer scales.
Sir Isaac Newton (16431727) invented the principle of the doubly reflecting navigation instrument (a
reflecting quadrantsee Octant (instrument)), but never published it. Two men independently
developed the octant around 1730: John Hadley (16821744), an English mathematician,
and Thomas Godfrey (17041749), a glazier in Philadelphia. John Bird made the first sextant in 1757,
and they are still in existence on United States Naval Warships as of 2014. [citation needed] The octant and
later the sextant, replaced the Davis quadrant as the main instrument for navigation.

Anatomy of a sextant
The index arm moves the index mirror. The indicator points at the arc to show the measurement. The
body ties everything together.
There are two types of sextants. Both types give good results, and the choice between them is
personal.
Traditional sextants have a half-horizon mirror. It divides the field of view in two. On one side, there is
a view of the horizon; on the other side, a view of the celestial object. The advantage of this type is
that both the horizon and celestial object are bright and as clear as possible. This is superior at night
and in haze, when the horizon can be difficult to see. However, one has to sweep the celestial object
to ensure that the lowest limb of the celestial object touches the horizon.
Whole-horizon sextants use a half-silvered horizon mirror to provide a full view of the horizon. This
makes it easy to see when the bottom limb of a celestial object touches the horizon. Since most
sights are of the sun or moon, and haze is rare without overcast, the low-light advantages of the halfhorizon mirror are rarely important in practice.
In both types, larger mirrors give a larger field of view, and thus make it easier to find a celestial
object. Modern sextants often have 5 cm or larger mirrors, while 19th century sextants rarely had a
mirror larger than 2.5 cm (one inch). In large part, this is because precision flat mirrors have grown
less expensive to manufacture and to silver.
An artificial horizon is useful when the horizon is invisible. This occurs in fog, on moonless nights, in a
calm, when sighting through a window or on land surrounded by trees or buildings. Professional
sextants can mount an artificial horizon in place of the horizon-mirror assembly. An artificial horizon is
usually a mirror that views a fluid-filled tube with a bubble.
Most sextants also have filters for use when viewing the sun and reducing the effects of haze.

Most sextants mount a 1 or 3 power monocular for viewing. Many users prefer a simple sighting tube,
which has a wider, brighter field of view and is easier to use at night. Some navigators mount a lightamplifying monocular to help see the horizon on moonless nights. Others prefer to use a lit artificial
horizon.
Professional sextants use a click-stop degree measure and a worm adjustment that reads to
a minute, 1/60 of a degree. Most sextants also include a vernier on the worm dial that reads to 0.2
minute. Since 1 minute of error is about a nautical mile, the best possible accuracy of celestial
navigation is about 0.1 nautical miles (200 m). At sea, results within several nautical miles, well within
visual range, are acceptable. A highly skilled and experienced navigator can determine position to an
accuracy of about 0.25-nautical-mile (460 m).[2]
A change in temperature can warp the arc, creating inaccuracies. Many navigators purchase
weatherproof cases so that their sextant can be placed outside the cabin to come to equilibrium with
outside temperatures. The standard frame designs (see illustration) are supposed to equalise
differential angular error from temperature changes. The handle is separated from the arc and frame
so that body heat does not warp the frame. Sextants for tropical use are often painted white to reflect
sunlight and remain relatively cool. High-precision sextants have an invar (a special low-expansion
steel) frame and arc. Some scientific sextants have been constructed of quartz or ceramics with even
lower expansions. Many commercial sextants use low expansion brass or aluminium. Brass is lowerexpansion than aluminium, but aluminium sextants are lighter and less tiring to use. Some say they
are more accurate because one's hand trembles less.
Aircraft sextants are now out of production, but had special features. Most had artificial horizons to
permit taking a sight through a flush overhead window. Some also had mechanical averagers to make
hundreds of measurements per sight for compensation of random accelerations in the artificial
horizon's fluid. Older aircraft sextants had two visual paths, one standard and the other designed for
use in open-cockpit aircraft that let one view from directly over the sextant in one's lap. More modern
aircraft sextants were periscopic with only a small projection above the fuselage. With these, the
navigator pre-computed his sight and then noted the difference in observed versus predicted height of
the body to determine his position.
After a sight is taken, it is reduced to a position by following any of several mathematical procedures.
The simplest sight reduction is to draw the equal-elevation circle of the sighted celestial object on a
globe. The intersection of that circle with a dead-reckoning track, or another sighting gives a more
precise location. Dimeke used it in the 1960 biafra war.
This is the instrument used for determining the angle between the horizon and a celestial body such
as the Sun, the Moon, or a star,used incelestial navigationto determine latitude and longitude. The
device consists of an arc of a circle, marked off in degrees, and amovable radial arm pivoted at the
centre of the circle. A telescope, mounted rigidly to the framework, is lined up with the horizon.
Theradial arm, on which a mirror is mounted, is moved until the star is reflected into a half-silvered
mirror in line with the telescope andappears, through the telescope, to coincide with the horizon. The
angular distance of the star above the horizon is then read from thegraduated arc of the sextant.
From this angle and the exact time of day as registered by a chronometer, the latitude can be
determined(within a few hundred meters) by means of published tables

Parts and its uses

Graduated Arc
- Indicates the number of degrees of an angle.

Index arm
Pivots at one end to allow the attached index mirror to reflect an object onto the horizon glass and
swings alongthe arc scale on the other end to indicate what the angle measures. It is a type of ruler
that determines direction or measuresan angle.

Micrometer drum
Rotates to make fine adjustments when measuring angles and indicates minutes of a degree of
angle. Itis attached to the lower end of the index arm. One complete rotation moves the index arm 1
along the arc scale. The drumhas 60 graduations, each representing1' of arc.

Vernier scale
Indicates tenths of a degree of angle. It is attached on the index arm adjacent to the micrometer
drum and has10 graduations, each representing 0.1 of arc.

Index mirror
large polished plate that Reflects objects onto the horizon glass.

Horizon glass
Allows the observer to view one object directly on one side while observing a second object
reflected next toit. The half of the horizon glass next to the frame is silvered to make that portion of
the glass a mirror; the other half is clear glass. It is a small polished glass plate that reflects light

Telescope
Directs the line of sight of the observer to the horizon glass and magnifies the objects observed.
Telescope clamp
- reinforcing circle.
Eyepiece
- lens the user looks through.
Telescope printing
- lens adjustment.
Filters
a colored transparent substance that protects the observers eyes when viewing the Sun.
Release levers
Disengages the index arm from the arc scale to allow the index arm to move freely. It holds the
sextant inplace.
Frame
- structure that serves as the base for the different parts of the sextant.

Screw to regulate small mirror

- piece of metal used to adjust the horizon mirror

Time & Arc Conversion

1 day = 360 = 24 hours
15 = 1 hour
1 = 4 minutes
15' = 1 minute
1' = 4 seconds
To convert time to arc:
1. Multiply the hours by 15 to obtain degrees of arc.
2. Divide the minutes of time by four to obtain
degrees.
3. Multiply the remainder of step 2 by 15 to obtain
minutes of arc.

4. Divide the seconds of time by four to obtain minutes

of arc
5. Multiply the remainder by 15 to obtain seconds of arc.
6. Add the resulting degrees, minutes, and seconds.
Example 1: Convert 14h21m39s to arc.
Solution:
(1) 14h 15 = 210 00' 00"
(2) 21m 4 = 005 00' 00" (remainder 1)
(3) 1 15 = 000 15' 00"(4) 39s 4 = 000 09' 00" (remainder 3)
(5) 3 15 = 000 00' 45"
(6) 14h21m39s = 215 24' 45"

To convert arc to time:

1. Divide the degrees by 15 to obtain hours.
2. Multiply the remainder from step 1 by four to obtain
minutes of time.
3. Divide the minutes of arc by 15 to obtain minutes
of time.
4. Multiply the remainder from step 3 by four to obtain
seconds of time.
5. Divide the seconds of arc by 15 to obtain seconds
of time.
6. Add the resulting hours, minutes, and seconds.
Example 2: Convert 215 24 45" to time units.
Solution:

Time Arc
1d =24h =360
60m =1h =15
4m = 1 =60'
60s = 1m = 15'
4s = 1' = 60"
1s = 15" = 0.25'
(1) 14h 15 = 210 00' 00"
(2) 21m 4 = 005 00' 00" (remainder 1)
(3) 1 15 = 000 15' 00"
(4) 39s 4 = 000 09' 00" (remainder 3)
(5) 3 15 = 000 00' 45"
(6) 14h21m39s = 215 24' 45"

International Date Line

The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth that runs from the
north to the south pole and demarcates backward calendar day from the next. It passes through the
middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180 longitude but deviating to pass around some
territories and island groups.
The IDL zigzags around the antimeridian, which is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Prime
Meridian. The Prime Meridian is used to defineUniversal Time and is the meridian from which all
other time zones are calculated. Time zones to the east of the Prime Meridian are in advance
of UTC(up to UTC+14); time zones to the west are behind UTC (to UTC-12). The IDL is the line
between those highest (up to UTC+14) and those lowest (down to UTC12) time zones.
The IDL and the moving point of midnight separate the two calendar days that are current somewhere
on Earth. However, during a two-hour period between 10:00 and 11:59 (UTC) each day, three
different calendar days are in use. This is because of daylight saving in the UTC+12 zone and the use
of additional date-shifted time zones in areas east of the 180th meridian. These additional time zones
result in the standard time and date in some communities being 24 or 25 hours different from the
standard time and date in others.

A traveler crossing the IDL eastbound subtracts one day, or 24 hours, so that the calendar date to the
west of the line is repeated after the following midnight. Crossing the IDL westbound results in 24
hours being added, advancing the calendar date by one day. The IDL is necessary to have a fixed,
albeit arbitrary, boundary on the globe where the calendar date advances in the westbound direction.

Zone time
A time zone is a region that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes.
It is convenient for areas in close commercial or other communication to keep the same time, so time
zones tend to follow the boundaries of countries and their subdivisions.
Most of the time zones on land are offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by a whole number
of hours (UTC12 to UTC+14), but a few are offset by 30 or 45 minutes (for exampleNewfoundland
Standard Time is UTC -03:30 and Nepal Standard Time is UTC +05:45). Some higher latitude
countries use daylight saving time for part of the year, typically by changing clocks by an hour. Many
land time zones are skewed toward the west of the corresponding nautical time zones. This also
creates a permanent daylight saving time effect.

Definition
Until 1972 all time zones were specified as an offset from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which was
the mean solar time at the meridian passing through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London.
Since 1972 all official time services have broadcast radio time signals synchronized to UTC, a form of
atomic time that includes leap seconds to keep it within 0.9 seconds of this former GMT, now
called UT1. Many countries now legally define their standard time relative to UTC, although some still
legally refer to GMT, including the United Kingdom itself. UTC, also called Zulu time, is used
everywhere on Earth by astronomers and others who need to state the time of an event
unambiguously.[citation needed]
Time zones are based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) [citation needed], the mean solar time at longitude 0
(the Prime Meridian). As the rate of rotation of the Earth is not constant, the time derived from atomic
clocks is adjusted to stay within a second of UT1. In January 1972 the length of the second in both
Greenwich Mean Time and atomic time was equalized. The readings of atomic clocks are averaged
to give a uniform time scale.
Because the length of the average day is currently 0.002 second more than 24 hours, leap
seconds are periodically inserted into Greenwich Mean Time to make it approximate to UT1. This new
time system is also called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Leap seconds are inserted to keep

UTC within 0.9 seconds of UT1. Because the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing, leap seconds will
need to be added more frequently in the future. However, from one year to the next the rotation rate is
slightly irregular, so leap seconds are not added unless observations of Earth's rotation show that one
is needed. In this way, local times will continue to stay close to mean solar time and the effects of
variations in Earth's rotation rate will be confined to simple step changes relative to the uniform time
scale (International Atomic Time or TAI). All local times differ from TAI by an integral number of
seconds. With the implementation of UTC, nations began to use it in the definition of their time zones.
As of 2005, most nations had altered the definition of local time in this way.
In the United Kingdom, this involved redefining Greenwich Mean Time to make it the same as UTC.
[9]
British Summer Time (BST) is still one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time and is therefore
also one hour in advance of Coordinated Universal Time. Thus Greenwich Mean Time is the local
time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich between 01:00 GMT on the last Sunday in October and
01:00 GMT on the last Sunday in March. Similar circumstances apply in many other places.
Leap seconds are considered by many to be a nuisance [who?], and ways to abolish them are being
considered. This means letting the time difference accumulate. One suggestion is to insert a "leaphour" in about 5,000 years.

Almanac
An almanac (also archaically spelled almanack and almanach) is an annual publication that includes
information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and tabular information
often arranged according to the calendar. Astronomical data and various statistics are found in
almanacs, such as the times of the rising and setting of the sun and moon, eclipses, hours of
full tide, church festivals, and so on.

Etymology
The etymology of the word is unclear, but there are several theories:

The word almanac derives from the greek word almenichiaka, which means calendar. The
earliest almanacs were calendars that included agricultural, astronomical, or meteorological data.

One suggestion is that alamanac was originally an Arabic word, al-mankh, meaning the
climate, this refers to the natural change in weather. In the modern sense too an almanac, or

almanakh, is the average weather forecast for a certain period of time that is characterized by
relatively stable weather conditions covering a specific area, also called climate.

However, the earliest documented use of the word in any language is in Latin in 1267 by Roger
Bacon, where it meant a set of tables detailing movements of heavenly bodies including the
moon.

One etymology report says: "The ultimate source of the word is obscure. Its first syllable, al-,
and its general relevance to medieval science and technology, strongly suggest an Arabic origin,
but no convincing candidate has been found." [1]

Another report similarly says of Almanac: "First seen in Roger Bacon. Apparently from Spanish
Arabic, al-manakh, but this is not an Arabic word [interpret: this is not a word found in Arabic
texts]....The word remains a puzzle."[2]

The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles similarly says "the word has no etymon in
Arabic" but indirect circumstantial evidence "points to a Spanish Arabic al-mankh".[3]

The reason why the proposed Arabic word is speculatively spelled al-mankh is that the spelling
occurred as "almanach" as well as almanac (and Roger Bacon used both spellings). The earliest use
of the word was in the context of astronomy calendars.
The prestige of the Tables of Toledo and other medieval Arabic astronomy works at the time of the
word's emergence in the West, together with the absence of the word in Arabic, suggest it may have
been invented in the West, and is pseudo-Arabic. At that time in the West, it would have been
prestigious to attach an Arabic appellation to a set of astronomical tables. Also around that time,
prompted by that motive, the Latin writer Pseudo-Geber wrote under an Arabic pseudonym. (The later
alchemy word alkahest is known to be pseudo-Arabic.)

Early almanacs
An almanac is text listing a set of events forthcoming in the next year. A calendar, which is a system
for time keeping, in written form is usually produced as a most simple almanac: it includes additional
information about the day of the week on which a particular day falls, major holidays, the phases of
the moon etc. The set of events noted in an almanac are selected in view of a more or less specific
group of readers e.g. farmers, sailors, astronomers or other y('y
s.

Hemerologies and parapegmata[edit]

The earlier texts considered to be almanacs have been found in the Near east, dating back to the
middle of the second millennium BCE. They have been called generally hemerologies, from the
Greek 'hmer', meaning 'day'. Among them is the so-called Babylonian Almanac, which lists
favorable and unfavorable days with advice on what to do on each of them. Successive variants and
versions aimed at different readership have been found. [4] Egyptians lists for good and bad moments,
three times each day, have also been found. It is not really known how these prognostics were
produced but they seem invariably connected with celestial events. [5][6] The flooding of the Nile valley,
a most important event in ancient Egypt, was expected to occur at the summer solstice but as the civil
calendar had exactly 365 days, over the centuries the date was drifting in the calendar. [7] The
first heliacal rising of Sirius was used for its prediction and this practice, the observation of some star
and its connecting to some event apparently spread.
The Greek almanac, known as parapegma, has existed in the form an inscribed stone on which the
days of the month were indicated by movable pegs inserted into bored holes, hence the name. There
were also written texts and according to Diogenes Lartius, Parapegma was the title of a book
by Democritus.[8] Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer (2nd century) wrote a treatise, Phaseis
"phases of fixed stars and collection of weather-changes" is the translation of its full titlethe core
of which is a parapegma, a list of dates of seasonally regular weather changes, first appearances and
last appearances of stars or constellations at sunrise or sunset, and solar events such as solstices, all
organized according to the solar year. With the astronomical computations were expected weather
phenomena, composed as a digest of observations made by various authorities of the
past. Parapegmata had been composed for centuries.
Ptolemy believed that astronomical phenomena caused the changes in seasonal weather; his
explanation of why there was not an exact correlation of these events was that the physical influences
of other heavenly bodies also came into play. Hence for him, weather prediction was a special
division of astrology.[9]
Ephemerides, zijs and tables
The origins of the almanac can be connected to ancient Babylonian astronomy, when tables of
planetary periods were produced in order to predict lunar and planetary phenomena. [10] Similar
treatises called Zij were later composed in medieval Islamic astronomy. The modern almanac differs
from Babylonian, Ptolemaic and Zij tables in the sense that "the entries found in the almanacs give
directly the positions of the celestial bodies and need no further computation", in contrast to the more
common "auxiliary astronomical tables" based on Ptolemy's Almagest. The earliest known almanac in
this modern sense is the Almanac of Azarqueil written in 1088 by Ab Ishq Ibrhm alZarql (Latinized as Arzachel) in Toledo, al-Andalus. The work provided the true daily positions of the
sun, moon and planets for four years from 1088 to 1092, as well as many other related tables.
A Latin translation and adaptation of the work appeared as the Tables of Toledo in the 12th century
and the Alfonsine tables in the 13th century

History of the Almanac

THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS is an American institution that millions of people
have turned to for 137 years. Ever since the first edition was published in 1868, it has been
improved, revised, expanded, and updated from year to year to keep up with our changing world.
Accuracy, adaptability, tradition, and innovation are the qualities that make the awardwinning WORLD ALMANAC the best-selling reference book available. It contains millions of easily
accessible facts in compact form.
Here is a brief overview of the history of THE WORLD ALMANAC, along with a few interesting
facts:

The first edition of THE WORLD ALMANAC was published by The New York World
newspaper in 1868 (the name of the publication comes from the newspaper itself, which was
known as "The World"). Published just three years after the end of the Civil War and the
assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, its 120 pages of information touched on such
events as the process of Reconstruction and the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.
Publication was suspended in 1876, but in 1886 famed newspaper publisher Joseph
Pulitzer, who had purchased The New York World and quickly transformed it into one of the
most influential newspapers in the country, revived THE WORLD ALMANAC with the intention
of making it "a compendium of universal knowledge." THE WORLD ALMANAC has been
published annually ever since.
In 1894, when it claimed more than a half-million "habitual users," THE WORLD
ALMANACchanged its name to THE WORLD ALMANAC AND ENCYCLOPEDIA. This was
the title it kept until 1923, when it became THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS,
the name it bears today.
During World War II, THE WORLD ALMANAC could boast that it was read by GIs all over
the world: between 1944 and 1946, at the request of the U.S. Government, THE WORLD
ALMANAC had special print runs of 100,000 to 150,000 copies for distribution to the armed
forces.
In 1961, a wire service photograph showed President Kennedy sitting behind his desk in the
Oval Office and on his desk were 6 books: the only reference book was THE WORLD
ALMANAC. Amazingly, almost 40 years later, a 1999 New York Times photo showed President
Clinton in almost the exact same position, seated at his desk in the Oval Office. Clearly visible
on the desk behind him are busts of Jefferson and Lincoln, pictures of his wife and daughter, a
Bible, and a copy of THE WORLD ALMANAC. And they're not the only U.S. Presidents who
have relied on THE WORLD ALMANAC: at Franklin Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park, NY, a
reproduction of his White House desk includes a copy of THE WORLD ALMANAC 1945.
In 1923, Calvin Coolidge was sworn as president after Warren Harding's sudden death by
his father, a Vermont Justice, who read the oath of office from a copy of THE WORLD
ALMANAC
THE WORLD ALMANAC is the bestselling U.S. reference book of all time, with more than 80
million copies sold since it was first published in 1868.
Over the years THE WORLD ALMANAC has become a household name and has been
featured in a number of Hollywood films. For example, Fred MacMurray talks about it with
Edward G. Robinson in Double Indemnity; Bette Davis screams about it in All About Eve;
Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper flirt about it in Love in the Afternoon; it is featured in Miracle
on Thirty-Fourth Street when a trial is held to see if Santa Claus really exists; and Rosie Perez
continually reads it in the film White Men Can't Jump.

THE WORLD ALMANACalso makes frequent appearances on television. It was recently

featured on Wheel of Fortune as a puzzle title to solve, and it is regularly cited as a source on
Jeopardy and as a source for contestants preparing for that shows.
THE WORLD ALMANAC has served readers since the 19th century, and yet it has always
remained on the cutting edge of the latest technological advances. THE WORLD ALMANAC is
available through numerous library on-line database providers and via subscription as the
World Almanac Reference Database @ FACTS.com. THE WORLD ALMANAC is also
available on CD-ROM and for handheld PDAs though Palm OS.
THE WORLD ALMANAC issues a free monthly e-newsletter featuring year-round updates
of the most turned-to sections of the Almanac.

Extract from Celestial

Navigation I and
Nautical Almanac
2012
Project in Nav 203
1 Sem (2014-2015)
st

C/M Santiago, JG
Avila, AM

2/M

Student
Instructor

List of
Contents
Astronomy
Celestial Bodies
The Solar System
Motion of bodies of Solar System
Venus as Morning and Evening star
Celestial Sphere
Celestial Navigation
Time Diagram
Chronometer
Sextant
Conversion of time to arc vice versa
International Date Line

 Zone time
Meaning of Almanac
History of Almanac
Nautical Almanac 2012