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Navigation pp 121–137Cite as

Celestial navigation

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Abstract

In the early days of marine navigation, stellar constellations have extensively been explored. Examples are found even in mythology like in the epos about the hero Odysseus written by the Greek poet Homer. A description for celestial navigation (or astronomical navigation, also briefly astronavigation) on land is the biblical story of the three Magi following the star of Bethlehem (no matter that the “star” actually was a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter) to find out the place of birth of Jesus Christ. In addition, it is well known that the North Star (Polaris) has been used over centuries as reference for heading north.

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Wien

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Hofmann-Wellenhof, B., Legat, K., Wieser, M. (2003). Celestial navigation. In: Navigation. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6078-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6078-7_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-00828-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-6078-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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