Chapter 1

Introduction to Navigation

Manalili, Vanna Jane D. ECE-4 Engineer Rene Gene Repique

Navigation is a field that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling

the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, marine navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. All navigational techniques involve locating the navigators position compared to known locations or patterns. Navigation, in a broader sense, can refer to any skill or study that involves the determination of position and direction. In this sense, navigation includes orienteering and pedestrian navigation. For information about different navigation strategies that people use, visit human navigation.

History of navigation
The commercial activities of Portugal in the early 15th century marked an epoch of distinct progress in practical navigation. These trade expeditions sent out by Henry the navigator led first to discovery of the Porto Santo (near Madeira) in 1418, rediscovery of the Azores in 1427, the discovery of the Cape Verde Islands in 1447 and Sierra Leone in 1462. Henrys successor, John II continued this research, forming a committee on navigation. This group computed tables of the suns declination and improved the marines astrolabe, believing it a good replacement for the cross-staff. In the 5th and 16th century, Spain was in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion. Spain open trade routes across the oceans specially the transatlantic expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1942. The Crown of Spain also financed the first expedition of world circumnavigation in 1521. The compass, a cross-staff or astrolabe, a method to correct for the altitude of Polaris and rudimentary charts were all the tools available to a navigator at the time of Christopher Columbus. In his notes on Ptolemys geography, Johannes Werner on Nurenberg wrote in 1514 the cross-staff was a very ancient instrument, but was only beginning to be used on ships. Rabbi Abraham Zacuto perfected the astrolabe, which only then became an instrument of precision, and he was the author of the highly accurate Almanac Perpetuum that were used by ship captains to determined the position of their Portuguese caravels in high seas, through

calculations on data acquired with an astrolabe. He published in the printing press of Leiria in 1496. In 1577, a more advanced technique was mentioned: the chip log. In 1587, a patent was registered for a device that would judged the ships speed by counting the revolutions of a wheel mounted below the ships waterline. Accurate time-keeping is necessary for the determination of longitude. The most accurate clocks available to these early navigators were water clocks and sand clocks, such as hourglass. Hourglasses were still in used by the Royal Navy of Britain until 1939for the timing of watches. In 1537, the Portuguese cosmographer Pedro Nunes published his Tratado da Sphera. For the first time the subject was approached using mathematicall tools. This publication gave rise to a new scientific discipline: theoretical or scientific navigation. In 1545, Pedro de Medina published the influencial Arte de navegar. In the late 16th century Gerardus Mercator made vast improvements to nautical charts. In 1594, John Davis published an 80 page pamphlet called The Seamans Secrets. Sebastian Cabot had used great circle methods in a crossing of the North Atlantic in 1495. In 1599, Edward Wright published Certaine Errors in Navigation, which for the first time explained the mathematical basis of the Mercator projection, with calculated mathematical tables which made it possible to use in practice. In 1631, Pierre Vernier described his newly invented quadrant that was accurate to one minute of arc. In theory, this one level of accuracy could give a line of position within a nautical mile of the navigators actual position. In 1635, Henry Gellibrand published an account of yearly changed in magnetic variation. In 1637, Norwood is credited with the discovery of magnetic dip.

Navigation Tools
Early documents state that the more experienced mariners of the time were said to plot their course by using certain stars constellations so most vessels followed the east/west movement of the sun or the track of the stars. However, the ancient navigator had no way to accurately determine longitude and therefore, once out of sight of land, had no idea how far east or west he was. So his estimates were made based upon the timed it took to sail from A to B. This form of navigation and it is called dead reckoning; it is still used by navigators today. The first successful exploratory ocean voyages were probably achieved by navigational mistakes. Some of the reasons being the ship was blown off course by a storm or influenced by a strong current or an error through a calculation made by a navigator, the best example being Christopher Colombo. Close examination of his journals reveal that he did not know how to calculate latitude properly, so some of his destinations were far too high. Another useful navigational instrument of the time around 1500 B.C., was the sounding reed or sounding weight. This device was used to figure out water depths in coastal regions. Using a combination of depth soundings, the sun or stars and the wind rose, these early navigators had to guess where they were when land could not be seen. The development of better navigational tools was naturally motivated by commerce and trade. The Phoenicians were most likely the first of the Mediterranean navigators to sail from coast to coast and even at night. The earliest known systems to aid the navigator were bonfires set up on mountaintops or large rocks.

Other Early Navigation Tools

An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the position of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars, determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa, surveying, triangulation, and to cast horoscopes.

The back staff is a navigational instrument that was used to measure the latitude of a celestial body, in particular the sun or moon. When observing the sun, users kept the sun to their back (hence the name) and observe the shadow cast by the upper vane on a horizon vane. It was invented by the English navigator, John Davis that described in his book Seamans Secret in 1594. Back staff is the name given to any instruments that measures the latitude of the sun by the projection of a shadow.

A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame reference defines the four cardinal directions (or points) north, south, east, and west.

A compass rose, sometimes called a windrose, is a figure in a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions - North, East, South, and West and their intermediate points. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional magnetic compass.

Astronomers used the cross-staff for measuring the angle between the directions of two stars. Other, older instruments for this purpose existed, used by scholars such as Hipparchos and Ptolemy, but none was as portable, which made the cross-staff eminently suitable for navigation at sea. Ships officers used it to measure the elevation angle of the noontime Sun above the horizon, which allowed them to estimate their latitude.

The hand lead-line consisted of a lead weight (weighing from 16 to 20 lbs.) a long rope marked with cloth and leather strips to indicate the various depths and a hand-held reel upon which the rope was wound.

The log line is an instrument for measuring the speed of the ship. It consisted of a flat piece of wood (the log), which was weighted at the bottom edge to enable it to float upright in the water. To the log was attached a long rope (log line). The log line was wound on a spool (log reel) so that it could be reeled out after the log was thrown into the water at the aft (rear) of the ship. The friction of the water held the log in place as the ship sailed away from it.

A chip log, also called common log, ship log or just log, is a navigation tool used by mariners to estimate the speed of a vessel through water. The name of the unit knot, for nautical mile per hour, was derived from this method of measurement.

A nocturnal is an instrument used to determine the local time based on the relative positions of two or more stars in the sky. Sometimes called a horologium nocturmun (time instrument for night) or nocturlabe (in french and occasionally used by English writters), it is related to the astrolabe and sundial.

A quadrant is an instrument that is used to measure angles up to 90 degrees.

Initially, reflecting circles were used at sea to find the longitude by the lunar distance method. The ability to measure large angles and the accuracy of averaging several observations were features which found favor on the continent, despite the circles awkwardness in taking sights.

Marine sandglass is an ancient marine instrument employed to measure (or rather estimate) the time at sea when used as 30 minute hourglass. It was also used together with the chip log, to measure the boat speed through water in knots (in this case with a 3 minute glass or less).

A sextant is an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary used is to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon which is known as the objects[s altitude. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight and it is an essential part of a 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.

The traverse board is a memory aid formerly used in dead reckoning navigation to easily record the speeds and directions sailed during watch. Even an illiterate crew member could use the traverse board; the traverse board is a simple wooden board with pegholes and attached pegs.

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.

Modern Techniques
Most modern navigation relies primarily on positions determined electronically by receivers collecting information from satellites. Most other modern techniques rely on crossing lines of position or LOP. A line of position can refer to two different things: a line on a chart and a line between the observer and an object in real life. A bearing is a measure of the direction to an object. If the navigator measures the direction in real life, the angle can then be drawn on a nautical chart and the navigator will be on that line on the chart. There are some methods seldom used today such as dipping a light to calculate the geographic range from observer to lighthouse. Methods of navigation have changed through history. Each new method has enhanced the mariners ability to complete his voyage. One of the most important judgments the navigator must take is the best method to use. Some types of navigation are depicted in the table.

Modern Navigation Methods

1. Dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning (also dead (for deduced) reckoning or DR) is the process of calculating ones current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time and course. Dead reckoning is subject to cumulative errors. By analogy with their navigational use, the words dead reckoning are also used to mean the process of estimating the value of any variable quantity by using an early value and adding whatever changes have occurred in the meantime. 2. Pilotage It is use of fixed visual references on the ground or sea by means of sight or radar to guide oneself to a destination, sometimes with the help of a map or nautical chart. People use pilotage for activities such as guiding vessels and aircraft, hiking and scuba diving. Without such pilotage references, it is necessary to navigate using dead reckoning (typically with a compass and some form of log for speed or distance estimation), radar, radio navigation, and satellite navigation (such as GPS).

3. Celestial navigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that has evolved over several thousand years to help sailors cross oceans without having to rely on estimated calculations, dead reckoning, to know their 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. Celestial navigation is use of angular measurements (sights) between celestial body and the visible horizon to locate ones position on the globe, on the land as well as at the sea. 4. Radio navigation Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position on the earth. Like radiolocation, it is type of radiodetermination. 5. Radar navigation This uses radar to determine the distance from or bearing of objects whose position is known. This process is separate from radars use as a collision avoidance system. Used primarily when within radar range of land. Some types of radar fixes include the relatively self-explanatory methods of range and bearing to a single object, two or more bearings, tangent bearings and two or more ranges. 6. Satellite navigation This uses artificial earth satellite systems, such as GPS, to determine position. Used in all situations. A satellite navigation or sat nav system of satellites that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage. It allows small electronic receivers to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude) to within a few metres using time signals transmitted along a line-of-sight by radio from satellites. Receivers calculate the precise time as well as position, which can be used as a reference for scientific reference for scientific experiments. A satellite navigation system with global coverage may be termed a global navigation satellite system or GNSS.