[saqlain_bhai]

Refer to astro-navigation. How the position of stars tell you where exactly on earth you are standing?

[Curlyben]

Have a read of this for starters : Celestial navigation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Stratmando]

The North star remains over the North Pole, within a degree, would actually appear as a wobble, over 24 hours.
This will always tell you which way is North. It is called Polaris, it is at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. Not always seen easily. No matter the season I usually see The Big Dipper that points to Polaris, Casseopia, which if you draw a right angle #7 off the bottom 3 stars, it will point to Polaris, then there is Orion which Travels East to West across the sky.
Every day the sky advances 1 degree, In 1 year the Constallitions will be back where they started.
If the North Star is 25 Degrees above the Horizon, then you would be about 25 Degrees Latitude. Columbus and early Navigators used a Astrolabe to determine the Degrees.
With the Stars you can tell which direction is which and your Latitude.
Longitude is determined with a watch or Timepiece and is MUCH more complicated.

[sean_s]

this is a complex operation, but let us start.

The first thing you would need is to locate time, local time that is, not necessarily the time your watch is saying. The definition of local time is that 1200 hours is when sun has the highest elevation, and the distance between two 1200 hour point in the same location is 24 hours. This is called a solar day.

You usually keep on monitoring the sun's easterly or westerly declination from zenith, without recognizing the absolute direction. That is, you will enter 30 degree east as just 30 degree, ebenso 30 degree for 30 degree west. You enter this values, along with time in ANY watch in a notebook.

Say you have
30 degrees at 1500 in your watch
10 degrees at 1620 in your watch
10 degrees at 1740 in your watch
30 degrees at 1900 in your watch

so you see, the highest elevation must have occurred in between 1620 and 1740. In fact, it occurred EXACTLY at 1700. So 1700 in your clock is 1200 localtime. Hence the longitude distance between where you are, and where your clock was time matched, is equivalent to 5 hours.

The earth goes one round = 360° in 24 hours, hence, 5 hours = 75°.

Now, you wait till the night falls, you open your almanac, and try to notice the moon phase. For that, you need to know the moonrise time, moonset time, the libration (you actually see 59% of moon, because the motion of moon and earth are not EXACTLY synchronized, the extra thing, that you see, is called libration), and the zodiac sign (better a particular star) that is behind moon.

Then you compare all these data in your almanac, and make a guess where you are. All these observations indicate a particular geodesic on earth. You plot these geodesics on a map.

Then, using a sextant, you measure the declination along the north horizon - zenith - south horizon geodesic, and the right accession, along the east - west direction of some stars, find the corresponding geodesics, plot them in map.

The intersection of all geodesics, indicate your location. Or if you are moving, then the line of motion appears a line joining the intersections of geodesic clusters.

Added to that you can apply certain more ideas of cartography. Assuming you are moving without changing the apparent direction, that is, had the sidereal north south fixed compared to your vessel, the curve thereby described is a loxodrome, the geodesics being a special class called orthodrome. They are indicated in a mariners map. You can compare your plotted chart with these, to find possible errors.

[Stratmando]

I like Navigating at night, it is faster, more accurate and easier than daytime and using the sun.(shadow stick or whatever)

[sean_s]

I like Navigating at night, it is faster, more accurate and easier than daytime and using the sun.(shadow stick or whatever)

Man you need the sun to get the local time.

And do you regularly navigate with stars? That's cool

[Stratmando]

I live in the Florida Keys, I love navigatiing at night in the Back country, since before GPS and Affordable GPS, LORAN was useless due to the Stations and their angles(LOP) down here. I use the Stars not to find my location on earth, but which way is North, South etc.
I also liked Trianglating from Radio Tower Beacons, I would need a Chart and compass to determine my location on the chart.
When coming back from the Mainland, Twisty Channel to Jimmy Channel, I would look for 2 towers in particular, and aim for an immaginary 3rd tower.
Then from Jimmy Channel to the Headpin at Tavernier Creek or the Basin, I would Aim for a distance
1/3rd the distance from the first 2 towers to the Next Tower South. You could do this Pitch Black, bad weather and miss some very bad flats. I loved it and some people liked the Backcountry in the Middle of Night, Go Figure.
The Stars and Sun are good for time as they move roughly 15 Degrees an Hour(Sun more than the Moon)
I used to have a dog I would walk every night, and I would look at the Sky and guess pretty much what time it was, must have been Winter as I used Orion as a Reference, Knowing it advances 1 Degree per Day and moving roughly the 15 degrees, you can get Surprisingly Accurate at determining Time, Not something you can learn in a week.
I think in older Cultures, many might look at the stars and say "Wow, is it that late"?

[sean_s]

I think in older Cultures, many might look at the stars and say "Wow, is it that late"?

Indeed