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The Visibility of Stars during Twilight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

Peter M. Millman
Affiliation:
(National Research Council of Canada)

Extract

One of the problems in arctic navigation by astro is the twilight period. At this time, if the Moon is below the horizon, suitable objects for sextant observation are not easy to find. The difficulty is aggravated by the fact that on certain flight paths the arctic twilight may last for many hours. It must also be remembered that in these areas the behaviour of the magnetic compass and of radio aids are often unreliable and this increases the relative importance of astro-navigation. With the introduction of the periscopic sextant into air navigation it has become possible to pre-set the instrument for a given star or planet and satisfactory observations may be possible when the heavenly body is still below the level of casual perception for the unaided eye. In this connection it is necessary to know what stars are likely to be seen under twilight conditions if efficient flight-planning is to be carried out.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1957

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References

REFERENCES

1Tousey, R. and Koomen, M. J. (1953). The visibility of stars and planets during twilight. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 43, 177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar