SIGHT REDUCTION TABLES FOR MARINE NAVIGATION

b y J. H. B lythe , R. L. D uncombe , and D. H. Sadler

IHB X ote. — M . B l y t h e is D ir e c t o r o f th e N a v ig a tio n a l S c ie n c e D iv is io n o f

th e U . S . N a v a l O c e a n o g r a p h ic O ffic e , W a s h in g t o n , D . C . D r. D u n c o m b e is h e a d
o f th e N a u tic a l A lm a n a c O ffic e , U . S . O b s e r v a t o r y . M r . S a d l e r is S u p e r in te n d e n t,
H .M . N a u tic a l A lm a n a c O ffic e , R o y a l G r e e n w ic h O b s e r v a t o r y , E n g la n d . T h e In ter­
national H ydrograp h ic R ev iew is p r iv ile g e d t o p u b lis h th is im p o r ta n t p a p e r ,
b e lie v e d o f u n u s u a l in te re st to o th er H y d r o g r a p h ic O ffic e s , as a r e p r in t o f the
a r tic le p r e v io u s ly a p p e a r in g in the J o u r n a ls o f the A m e r ic a n a n d the B r itis h
In stitu tes o f N a v ig a tio n .

Abstract

The purpose o f this article is to describe the n e w tables, with the above
title, which are shortly to be published by the U. S. Naval Oceanographic
Office as H.O. Pub. No. 229, and as a H ydrographic Publication o f the
United Kingdom .

Historical survey

The m ost com prehensive tables designed fo r the application o f the

intercept m ethod o f plotting position lines in the practice o f astronom ical
navigation at sea are the w ell-know n Tables o f C om puted Altitude and
A zim uth, originally published in the years 1936-1945 as H.O. Pub. No. 214
by the U. S. Navy Hydrographic Office (as it was then know n ). These are
b y no means the earliest o f such tables in concept and objective, for
Lord K e l v i n , generally considered the father o f m odern navigation m ethods,
expressed interest in tables from w hich solutions could be extracted direct;
he recognized, however, that the tabulation o f 903 x 603 or 157 464 000 000
solutions, w hich w ould be required to avoid interpolation, was quite
im practicable. It was left to Frederick B a l l , chaplain and naval instructor
in the Royal Navy, to com pute and publish his position line tables early
in the twentieth century; these are the first inspection tables em ploying
the altitude m ethod. But H.O. Pub. No. 214 so far surpassed all others in
range and com pleteness that thereafter they becam e identified w ith the
“ tabular m eth od” o f sight reduction at sea. The measure o f their success
is not merely the very large numbers o f copies sold, and in use, but more
im portantly the effect o f their availability in influencing methods o f sight
reduction.
 The m arine navigator, whether in the m ilitary or merchant navies, is
by training and by nature extrem ely conservative in the m ethods he uses
for sight reduction; and it takes m any years for a new method to becom e
generally accepted through the training schools and instruction manuals.
Until H.O. Pub. No. 214 was available it was not praticable to teach sight
reduction by direct tabular solution o f the navigational spherical triangle;
this has now becom e the standard method, with immense benefit in
sim plifying the basic problem, facilitating teaching, and— almost incidentally
— saving actual calculation.
However, direct calculation using logarithm ic-trigonom etrical tables,
or short tabular methods or “ m ixed ” methods, will doubtless long continue
to be used — with efficiency — by those who were so trained in their use.
D uring the early part o f the twentieth century m ost prom inent maritime
nations published such abbreviated navigational tables to facilitate the
rapid reduction o f observations and the plotting o f the resulting position
lines. Tables o f this type are still used in considerable quantities as
evidenced by the U.S. Naval O ceanographic O ffice’s distribution last year,
through official issues and sales, o f some 400 copies o f H.O. Pub. No. 208
(D reisonstok), and 2600 copies o f H.O. Pub. No. 211 (Ageton).
W ith the full perm ission o f the U.S. Naval Oceanographic O ffice —
and with every assistance in the supply o f reproducible material — H.O.
Pub. No. 214 has been reproduced, generally by photo-lithography, in several
other countries, notably as H ydrographic Department publication H.D. 486
in the United Kingdom, Istituto Idrografico della Marina publication 1.1.
3137 in Italy, and Institute H idrografico de la Marina, Special Publication
No. 4 in Spain. Together with The Nautical Alm anac, the basic principles
o f w hich are now used in almost all countries, it can be said that H.O. Pub.
No. 214 has unified to a very large extent the practice of astronom ical
navigation at sea on an almost w orld-w ide basis.
Although H.O. Pub. No. 214 is far from perfect, its im perfections do
not significantly affect its use for navigation. There are about 1 J m illion
entries in these tables, and they were calculated at a time before even
punched-card com puters were available; essentially each value had to be
calculated individually with separate entry into the appropriate trigono­
metrical tables. It is not surprising that there are minor end-figure and
rounding-off errors; the larger errors, m ainly introduced in the process o f
the printing, have already been found and corrected. Moreover, the design
o f the tables, particularly in respect o f the provision for interpolation, is
not the most suitable for obtaining the full tabular precision o f Ofl ; the
lim itation to altitudes greater than 5° has also been found restrictive in
some applications.
These essentially m inor im perfections in H.O. Pub. No. 214, w hich
have little practical effect on its use, have been long appreciated by the
com pilers, the U.S. Naval O ceanographic Office, and the question has often
been raised o f the desirability o f recom puting and reprinting the w hole
tables with all the effort and expense it w ould entail. It is interesting to
record that the British H ydrographic Department decided, in 1950, that the
advantages o f a com plete redesign did not warrant the recom putation,
reprinting and, perhaps above all else, the necessity for com plete p roof­
reading o f new matter as com pared with the direct photo-lithographic
reproduction o f H.O. Pub. No. 214. However, the present availability o f
high-speed electronic computers, o f automatic photo-setting from the
com puter output, and of automatic methods o f checking the printed figures
has changed the degree o f the effort required; for example, the whole o f
the 1 \ m illion entries in the present tables can be com puted, and recorded
on magnetic tape, on a fast computer in two or three hours.
The U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office accordingly decided to undertake
a design-study for a possible replacement o f H.O. Pub. No. 214 by a newly-
designed, new ly-com puted and newly-presented set o f tables, and drew up
specifications. In accord with the earlier successful collaborative w ork on
H.O. Pub. No. 249, Sight Reduction Tables for A ir Navigation, these
specifications were discussed with the Nautical Alm anac Office o f the U.S.
Naval Observatory, and with H.M. Nautical Alm anac Office at the Royal
Greenwich Observatory. The resulting design, in all its detail, is the result
o f collaborative w ork at, and discussion between, the three establishments.

The w hole production o f the Sight Reduction Tables for Marine

Navigation is, in fact, a cooperative effort. However, for obvious practical
considerations, the actual com putations have been centralised on the IBM
1410 electronic com puter at the U.S. Naval Observatory, w hich also
produced the magnetic-tape output from w hich the plates for photo-litho­
graphic printing were automatically produced by the L inofilm process by
the U.S. Government Printing Office. Calculations for certain random ly-
selected pages, and independent checks on the main tabulations and on the
auxiliary tables, were carried out at H.M. Nautical Alm anac Office. All three
establishments shared in various stages o f the examination, and checking,
o f the printing process.

Purpose and scope o f the tables

The main purpose o f the tables is to facilitate the practice o f astronom ­

ical navigation at sea, to the highest precision possible by conventional
methods o f observation and altitude correction. Experience with H.O. Pub.
No. 214, and with other tables and m ethods, has shown that interpolation
o f the tabulated altitude and azimuth for hour angle a n d /o r latitude, as
well as for declination, either introduces significant errors or involves
unacceptably com plicated procedures. Such difficulties can be avoided by
plotting the position line from a position chosen so that interpolation for
hour angle and latitude unnecessary; the resulting errors o f plotting can
in turn be avoided by using an appropriate projection, and by small
corrections for curvature o f the position lines. Accordingly, the tables have
been designed prim arily to provide the calculated altitude and azimuth, as
w ould have been observed (after application o f observational corrections)
from a chosen position at the same time as the actual observation, and so
to allow the corresponding position line to be plotted by the intercept
method.
 A secondary purpose is to provide, within the limits o f the navigational
precision required, a fundam ental table o f the solutions o f a spherical
triangle in which two sides and the included angle are given.
It was thus decided to provide tabulated altitudes and azimuths for
all com binations o f latitude, hour angle and declination at a uniform
interval o f 1° in each o f the three argum ents; interpolation, to the highest
precision, is provided only for the altitude in the direction o f declination.
W ithin this scope, the aim has been to achieve absolute accuracy with a
high standard o f design and presentation.

Description o f the main tables

Precision. The altitude is tabulated to O'l and the azimuth angle to

0?1, the highest precision required for conventional astronom ical naviga­
tion at sea. It is recognized that such precision is not generally realised in
the observations, and that in som e cases the lower precision o f the Sight
R eduction Tables fo r A ir Navigation (H.O. Pub. No. 249 in U.S.A. and A.P.
3270 in U.K.) m ay suffice.

Arrangem ent. O f the three arguments, that which determines the

division into volumes must be latitude; the tables are in fact divided into
six volum es, each o f w hich contains two zones o f latitude as follow s :

F irst zone o f Second zone o f

me No.
latitude latitude
1 0° (1 °) 7° 8° (1°) 15°
2 15 (1 ) 22 23 (1 ) 30
3 30 (1 ) 37 38 (1 ) 45
4 45 (1 ) 52 53 (1 ) 60
5 60 (1 ) 67 68 (1 ) 75
6 75 (1 ) 82 83 (1 ) 90

There is an overlap o f one degree (15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°) between volum es.
W ithin each o f the twelve zones o f latitude, for which the 182 pages
of tabulations constitute a self-contained entity, the main argument is local
hour angle (measured westwards from the local m eridian through 360“ );
to each value o f the local hour angle (L.H.A. = P °) in the range 0° (1°) 90°
there corresponds an opening o f two facing pages, which contain the
tabulations for :
(i) local hour angles, L.H.A. = P* and 3 6 0 °— P", for declinations o f
both the same and contrary nam es;
(ii) local hour angles, L.H.A. = 180“ — P “ and 180° + P°, for declina­
tions o f the same nam e; for these hour angles bodies with declinations o f
contrary name are below the horizon.
W ithin each opening, the left-hand page is always restricted to the
tabulations for local hour angle L.H.A. = P° and 360° — P°, and for
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declinations o f the same name. The right-hand page contains : on the upper
portion, the tabulations for local hour angle L.H.A. = P" and 360° — P°,
and for declinations o f the contrary name; and, on the lower portion, the
tabulations for the supplementary local hour angle L.H.A. = 1 8 0 °— P°
and 18011 + P°, and for declinations o f the same name, which dovetail in
exactly with those on the upper portion. (See fig. 1).
The local hour angle, w hich is the prim ary entering argument, is
prom inently displayed at the top and bottom o f each page; the horizontal
argument heading each column is latitude; and the vertical argument is
declination.
W ith this arrangement, the opening required for the reduction o f a
sight taken within a particular zone of latitude (either north or south) is
determined uniquely by the value o f the local hour angle. W hatever the
local hour angle, tabulations for all declinations and for all latitudes within
the zone are immediately available on the one opening. The value o f the
L.H.A., prom inently displayed, is thus the most significant element for
entering the tables — far more im portant than the page number as an index
and reference.

Tabulated quantities. For each com bination o f arguments there is

tabulated : the altitude, He, to O 'l; in smaller type, the actual difference, d,
with sign, to the tabulated altitude for the next higher degree o f declination
(referred to later as the “ altitude difference ” ); the azimuth angle, Z, to 0?1.
Rules are given, on each opening, for converting the tabulated azimuth
angle into true azimuth, measured from the north through east; the rules
differ according to the hemisphere (northern or southern) and the range
o f local hour angle.
Figs 1A and IB illustrate the appearance of a portion o f (a) a left-
hand page and (b) a right-hand page from the same opening.

Interpolation

Provision is made for interpolation of the altitude in the direction o f

the declination by the tabulation o f the actual first difference, d, referred
to as the “ altitude difference ” , and by special interpolation tables, included
in each volum e. The latter are designed to enable interpolation to be made
to the exact declination o f the body observed, to full precision including
(where necessary) the effect of second differences.
The main, vertical, argument o f the interpolation table (see fig. 2)
is the excess o f the actual declination over that used (an integral degree)
for the tabular entry; since it is recom m ended that the tabular entry used
should always be for the integral degree o f declination num erically less
than (or equal to) the actual declination, this excess should always be the
actual minutes o f the declination itself, referred to as the “ declination
increment ” . It is abbreviated to “ Dec. Inc. ”. The other argument is the
tabulated altitude difference, d, w hich for convenience is divided into two
 _®"0 - t N n n io o s c o o - M O ^ i f l C N C 0 0 ; O - - t v n n i 0 '0 K ( 0
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parts, the first being a multiple o f 10' (10', 20', 30', 40' or 50') and the
second the rem ainder in the range O'O (O'l) 9'9.
The main part o f the interpolation correction (i.e. the quantity to be
applied to the tabular entry to convert it to the calculated altitude for the
desired declination) is obtained as the simple sum o f two quantities :
(i) the first contribution : the tabular value corresponding to the Dec.
Inc. and the tens o f minutes of the altitude difference, d;
(ii) the secon d contribution : the tabular value corresponding to the
Dec. Inc. and the rem ainder o f d; the units o f this remainder form the
horizontal, and the decim als the vertical, arguments for entering the section
of the table opposite (on the right-hand side of) the pertinent unit o f the
Dec. Inc. em ployed in obtaining the first contribution.
There is no m ental interpolation, and the additional error introduced
by the division into twTo parts (as com pared with an exact m ultiplication)
has a m axim um o f 0;07. If, as recom m ended, interpolation is made in a
forw ard direction the correction is to be applied to the altitude with the
sign o f the altitude difference.
In the same table, provision is also made for the application o f the
second-difference correction ; critical tables, each corresponding to a small
range o f the main argum ent Dec. Inc., give the second-difference correction
with the double-second difference as argument. Since the second difference
of the altitude is always negative, the second-difference correction is always
to be added to the altitude. This correction is generally sm all; it can be
neglected for norm al sight reduction unless the altitude difference, d, is
printed in italic type, or unless full precision is required. The altitude
difference, d, in the main tables is printed in italic type (follow ed by a dot
for easier recognition) when the double-second difference is 4f0 or greater,
which can occur only when the altitude exceeds 60“ ; the maximum error
that can arise through the neglect o f second differences, when d is not in
italics, is thus 0'25.

The interpolation table has been designed so that it can be printed on

four pages only; the inside front cover and facing page provide for the
range 0^0 to 31'9 o f the Dec. Inc., while the inside back cover and facing
page provide for the range 28f0 to 59f9. Part of it is reproduced in Figure 2.
As an illustration o f the use o f the interpolation table, the altitude is
determined for latitude N. 76°, local hour angle 29° (see Fig. 1A) and
declination N. 69" 34?8.

For declination 69°, the same name, the altitude is 7 9 ” 00^9 and the
altitude difference, d, is + 46'2; it is printed in italic type and follow ed by
a dot (so that second differences are significant), and the double-second
difference, obtained as the difference between the tabulated altitude differen­
ces on the preceding ( + 48'3) and follow ing ( + 43'6) lines, is — 4f7. The
Dec. Inc. is 34'8, w hich is used as the main argument for the first contribu­
tion from the interpolation table and then indicates the small tables from
w hich the second contribution and the second-difference correction are
taken.
 Correc­
tion
First contribution for altitude diff. = 40' 23:2
Dec. Inc. 34:8
Second contribution fo r altitude diff. = 6:2 3:6
Dec. Inc. 34:8
First-difference correction : altitude diff. = 46:2 26:8
Dec. Inc. 34:8
Second-difference correction : double-second diff. = 4:7 o:3
Dec. Inc. 34:8

The interpolated altitude, using first differences only, is thus 79° 27:7 =
79° 00:9 + 26:8 since d is positive; the correction o f second differences
makes it 79° 28:0, since the latter must always be added.
No special table is provided for interpolation o f the azimuth angle;
and the differences are not tabulated. The successive azimuth differences
are less than 10?0 for altitudes less than 84°, and can easily be form ed
m entally; to this point second differences can be neglected. If form al inter­
polation is necessary, the second contribution from the interpolation table
is alone required (since the azimuth difference cannot exceed 1 0?0); but for
most practical applications interpolation by inspection will probably suffice.
Interpolation becom es difficult close to the zenith, but no special tables
are provided. Instead, there is described in the Introduction to the tables,
a method o f interpolation (based on keeping constant the difference between
latitude and declination) that overcom es the difficulty in all except extreme
cases in very high latitudes.
Although the tables are not designed for interpolation fo r latitude and
local hour angle, interpolation is possible using differences and the inter­
polation table. But great care, and considerable work, is required if a
precision o f about 0:2 or 0:3 is to be obtained. For this reason there is also
included in each volum e two printed diagrams, and a sim ple loose
transparency (w hich will also be available in separate b lock s), w hich will
provide a graphical m ethod for interpolating the altitude to the D.R. position
to full precision. The same diagrams can also be used fo r plotting a series
o f position lines using intercepts from chosen positions; the resulting fix
can then be transferred to the chart.

Auxiliary tables

Because o f the provision o f altitude-reduction tables in The Nautical

Alm anac, there is little requirem ent for auxiliary tables; the only one
included is a Speed-Tim e-Distance table.
 Production

M ethod o f Com putation. For latitude (lat.), declination (dec.) and

local hour angle (L.H .A.), the azimuth (Az.) and altitude (Alt.) were cal­
culated from the follow in g form ulae :
cos(dec.) sin(L.H.A.)
tan(Az.) = ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cos(lat.) sin(dec.) — sin(lat.) cos(dec-) cos(L.H.A.)
sin(Alt.) = sin(lat.) sin(dec.) + cos(lat.) cos(dec.) cos(L.H .A.)
The com putations were perform ed on an IBM 1410 electronic calculator,
using nine significant figures, to assure the desired accuracy o f a tenth
o f a minute o f arc in altitude and a tenth o f a degree in azimuth.
The results o f the com putations for any one volum e are transcribed on
to two magnetic tapes; one contains the altitude and azimuth calculated
for declinations and latitudes o f the same name (left-hand pages) and the
other contains the altitude and azimuth calculated for declinations and
latitudes o f contrary names (right-hand pages).
The calculations for any one page proceed according to the follow ing
algorithm. The local hour angle o f the page is first established. Then, for
the smallest value o f the latitude contained within the volum e, all azimuths
and altitudes are calculated for the range o f declinations 0° (1°) 90°. The
latitude is then augm ented by one degree and, again, all altitudes and
azimuths are calculated. The process o f augmenting the latitude and cal­
culating the altitudes and azimuths proceeds until the largest value o f the
latitude in the volume is reached. The succeeding pages are com puted in
the same fashion, augmenting the local hour angle by one degree for each
set of four pages.

Checks before c o p y production. Checks on the final values o f altitude

and azimuth were applied by two methods :
(i) manual recalculation o f several quantities on each page;
(ii) autom atic differencing o f consecutive values o f altitude and azimuth
in the direction o f declination.
In addition, all values o f the altitude within 1°30' of the zenith (for
w hich values the lim itation to nine figures may introduce errors o f order
0f0005 and so affect the rounding-off to Of1) were re-calculated by direct
methods, not subject to the lim itations o f the standard form ulae. The
form ula used is equivalent to
sin- l/2 (z .d .) = cos2 1/2(L.H .A .) sin2 l/2 (la t. — dec.)
+ sin2 1/2(L.H .A .) cos2 l/2 (la t. + dec.)
where z.d. is the zenith distance.
The re-calculated values were automatically com pared with the
previous ones during the editing program ; as a result 3 end-figures were
changed in Volum e 6.
 Autom atic Photo-Com position. An editing and page-com position pro­
gram on the IBM 1410 was used to assemble automatically the previously
calculated values o f the altitude and azimuth in the form o f the final
printed page. In this program the numerical data are com bined with editing
instructions, and the com bined data are transcribed on to magnetic tape.
At the beginning o f the program the headings which appear on every page
are assembled, coded in binary notation, and stored. The records for a single
page are read in from the magnetic tapes produced in the com puting run
on the IBM 1410. The L.H.A. values for that page are placed in their proper
heading area and the headings and spaces between lines at the top of the
page are transferred to the output tape. Each line o f the tabular data is
then converted and stored on the output tape at two lines per record.
W henever the declination value ends in 4 or 9 an extra space between lines
is provided. At the end of the pages the terminal headings are ptit on the
tape record and the page number is calculated from the value o f the L.H.A.
This process requires approxim ately 40 seconds o f computer time for each
page; or about four hours time for one volume o f H.O. Pub. No. 229. This
binary-coded magnetic tape is then automatically translated to the fifteen-
channel paper tape necessary to operate the L inofilm photo-com posing
equipment o f the U.S. Government Printing Office. The data are photo-set,
character by character, to form a photographic positive o f the final page.
The colum nar rulings and the minor headings which explain the rules for
deriving azimuth from azimuth angle are added to the L inofilm prints
using overlays, and the com pleted pages are prepared photographically
using standard procedures. The stair-step rulings (on the right-hand pages
to separate the tabulations for same and contrary names) are scribed by
hand on the final negative.
P roof reading. Ozalid proofs o f the photo prints were examined for
completeness and im perfections. The overlays were then placed on the
photoprints to make offset negatives with an enlargement to final page size
(approxim ately 127 % ). Van Dyke proofs o f these negatives were used for
further checks. All data on these page proofs were punched on cards, one
line to a card; and these cards were finally com pared autom atically on the
electronic com puter with the originally com puted data.

Commentary

For some time it has been thought that automatic astronomical,

electronic, and now satellite, navigation developments would outm ode and
replace the older stereotyped systems including astronomical navigation.
Regardless o f the im pact o f these influences and developments, this forecast
has not come to pass, or at least has been impeded to the extent that, in
spite o f tremendous developments in navigational systems o f all kinds,
navigators are today still vitally interested in improved facilities for sight
reduction, and in more rapid and accurate techniques for establishing the
line o f position. Astronomical navigation is still a fundamental procedure
on most navigable craft. Greater accuracy and efficiency in positioning by
all acceptable methods becom e econom ically feasible, and even practical, as
speeds increase, cargoes becom e larger and more valuable, and the ship’s
environment becom es better known. Military demands and accelerated
means o f transportation and com m unication require that approximate
solutions and estimating procedures be abandoned in favour o f greater
accuracies, im proved techniques, and more rigorous solutions. There is no
doubt as to the need for better and faster methods for sight reduction.
At the time w hen the navigational journals are full o f descriptions o f
com pletely autom atic navigational systems using artificial satellites, it may
seem reactionary even to consider the production o f tables for the solution
o f the navigational spherical triangle. Such solutions are a tiny fraction o f
the com puting required with these systems, and take m illiseconds only to
com plete. But a very large percentage o f surface navigators still use
logarithms, and it will be m any years before even the m ajority of ships are
fu lly equipped with autom atic position-fixing systems. Moreover, such
systems will not, w ithout considerable effort, solve the occasional great
circle, or other problem s for w hich the tables will provide solutions at once.
W e are thus convinced that there is a need for these tables; and we have
made the utmost use o f experience, and of modern com puting and printing
methods, to try to make them accurate and convenient for the user.