Re: could have used the stars all along?

Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Say, for GPS navigation, how about using the signals sent from the
> fixed stars instead of government satellites? Certainly each star has
> its own signature, however weak.
>
> OK, well at least they can be identified by their relative positions,
> as easy as one look up in the sky by ancient navigators or school
> kids.
>
> So an optical based GPS could use them, at least at night,
> triangulating by differences in light waves instead of radio waves,
> after locking on to stars via their relative positions. Found orion,
> found polaris... beep ...


Good joke! Triangulating from stars might be a good way to navigate around
the galaxy to the nearest million miles or so... (Look up the definition of
"parsec".)

Celestial navigation is about finding out where the vertical at your
location is pointing relative to the star field and, accurately knowing the
time, working out where on earth gives that vertical direction. Usually the
vertical is identified by measuring from the horizon (on boats, anyway), up
to the identified star. So recognising multiple stars could be useful for
making sure that the identification is correct, but not for triangulation.

And there's still the problem of identifying the vertical or horizon.

Mike.
--
If reply address = connectfee, add an r because it is free not fee.


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