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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Alnair identification
From: Peter Hakel
Date: 2023 Nov 6, 20:06 -0800
From: Peter Hakel
Date: 2023 Nov 6, 20:06 -0800
This discussion prompted me to engage in a little exercise in star identification - Navigation Spreadsheets style. Taking the approximate location as 43° N, 70° W, a trial-and-error application of aries_stars.xls places Alnair on the meridian at roughly UT=23:40 (no need to be superprecise here). Then, combining that with this “unknown” star’s observed azimuth (180°) and altitude (2°) the spreadsheet what_star.xls picks from among the 57 main navigation stars the one closest to that location in the sky - and voilà, Alnair it is.
Peter Hakel
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