NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brian Walton
Date: 2017 Feb 15, 08:43 -0800
An easy way to find Aries is to start with Polaris, and go to Caph, (the star top right of the W of Cassiopeia, or bottom left if Cassiopeia makes an M) then continue past the edge of the Square of Pegasus, to the horizon. The line you have followed is 0 SHA Aries.
GHA Aries equals 0, or very close, at 00 hours GMT on 21 September. With a watch, you now have a way of finding rough longitude. The angle between GHA Aries, and LHA Aries is longitude. Time Aries, looking at the hour hand made by Caph rotating around Polaris, as Caph passes vertically above or below Polaris, or horizontally left or right. This is LHA Aries. Then figure GHA Aries, by adding one degree per day past Sep 21, plus 15 degrees per hour, and 1 degree per 4 minutes of time on your watch.
Latitude you get from Polaris, or 90- merpass alt Mintaka.
Mintaka always rises due east, crosses the meridian 6 hours later for merpass and sets due west, giving you a variation plus deviation check.
The only thing you have to remember is 21 Sept.
Brian Walton
