A NOVEL APPROACH TO DETERMINE THE SHIP POSITION WITH AN AZIMUTH OF CELESTIAL BODY AND FACTORS OF SHIP ROUTE

In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to determine a ship position by combining the azimuth of a celestial body and the planning route of ship. First, the equation relating the azimuth of observed body to the ship position in spherical coordinate system is described. Second, Mercator sailing method in the marine navigation is employed to initialize potential results of the ship position. Finally, simple iterative method is applied to obtain the ship position. The advantage of this approach in comparison with existing methods is the ability to find the ship position when there is a single celestial body. Additionally, this approach can be performed at night when the horizon is invisible.