StarPilot

users guide
TM

for T I- 8 9 , 9 2 + and Voyage 2 0 0

July 9, 2003
TI calculator manuals
included on CD

T T T T
StarPilot
T T T T
T
Manual Copyright © 2002, StarPilot, LLC
2668 Jericho Rd, Maryville TN 37803
Printed in the USA
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide - 10th July 2003 1

Contents

Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Quick Start Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Your First Sight Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Date Input for Sight Reductions and Fixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Example of Running Fix Using GMT and Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How StarPilot Handles Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
How StarPilot Handles DR Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
How StarPilot Handles Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
How StarPilot Handles IC, HE, Limb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Same Running Fix Using Local or Other Time Zone and Other Shortcuts. . . 13
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Installing StarPilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
StarPilot Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Resetting Factory Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Custom Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The –More– Scroller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
About Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2 StarPilot, LLC

Contrast Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Functions by key strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
[1]**Settings** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
[S1]**Settings 1** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
[S1][2]Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
[S1][3]DR Lat/Lon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
[S1][4]Dest Lat/Lon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
[S1][5]Course/Speed (CandS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
[S1][6]View Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
[S2]**Settings 2** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
[S2][2]Index Correction (IC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
[S2][3]Height of Eye (HE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
[S2][4]Limb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
[S2][5]SR Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
[S2][6]PC Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
[S3]** Settings 3** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
[S3][2]Temperature and Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
[S3][3]Dip Mode for Dip Short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
[S3][4]Hc Min, Max, Max Mag Cutoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
[S3][5]UT Offsets (ZD/WE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
[S3][6]Maximum Number of Sights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
[S4]** Settings 4** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
[S4][2]Resetting Factory Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
[S4][3]Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
[S4][4]Local Magnetic Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
[S4][5]Setting the DR Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
[S4][6]Tech Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 3

[2]**Celestial Bodies** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
[2][1]Sunrise, Set, Twilight, and LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
[2][2]Sight Planner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Find Sights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
[2][3]Sight Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Moving around using Zoom and Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
LAN Analysis Using Sight Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
[2][4]**Precompute** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
[2][5]Star and Planet ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
[2][6]Moon Rise, Set, Phase, Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
[3]** Sight Reductions** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
[3][1]Sun Sight Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
[3][2]Star Sight Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Star Selector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
[3][3]Moon Sight Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
[3][4]Planet Sight Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
[3][5]Delete a Sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
[3][6]Celestial Fix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
[4]**Celestial Fix** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3-Star Fix Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
[4][1]Review Sights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
–More– and the “Redo” Function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
[4][2]Fix by Computation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
[4][3]Fix by Plotting LOPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
[4][4]The Sight Archiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
[4][5]Delete a Sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
[4][6]New Sequence (Del All) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4 StarPilot, LLC

[5]Updating DR Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
SR Mode and Update DR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
DR Mode OFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
DR Mode Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
DR Mode Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Note on DR Over Midnight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
DR Mode and Review-Sights Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
[6]**Utilities** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
[6][1]Speed, Time, Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
[6][2]True Wind Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
[6][3]**Route Sailings** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
[6][3][1]Rhumbline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
[6][3][2]Great Circle Sailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
[6][3][3]Traverse Sailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
[6][3][4]Composite Sailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
[6][3][5]Compute Magnetic Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
[6][3][6]Set DR Params. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
[6][4]**Current Sailings** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
[6][4][1]Course/Speed Made Good through a Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
[6][4][2]Course and Speed to Steer to Achieve a CMG and SMG . . . . . . 56
[6][4][3]Course to Steer at Given Speed to Achieve a CMG . . . . . . . . . 56
[6][4][4]Find Current from GPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
[6][4][5]Tidal Current Interpolator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
[6][4][6]Tide Height Interpolator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
[6][5]**Celestial Utilities** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
[6][5][1]Meridian Passage of the Sun for both Lat and Lon . . . . . . . . . . 57
[6][5][2]Polaris Sights for Latitude and Azimuth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 5

[6][5][3]GMT by Lunar Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

[6][5][4]List Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
[6][5][5]Sight Reductions Using External Almanac Data . . . . . . . . . . . 60
[6][5][6]Compass Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
[6][6]Piloting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
[6][6][1]ETA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
[6][6][2]Distance Off by Vertical Sextant Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
[6][6][3]Distance Off by Two Bearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
[6][6][4]Add Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
[6][6][6]Geographical Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Appendix 1 - Almanac Precision Specs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Appendix 2 - Capturing Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Appendix 3 - Transferring Data to/from a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Appendix 4 - Installation Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6 StarPilot, LLC

Quick Start

This User’s Guide is specific to the StarPilot-

89/92+/V200 and closely resembles the ver-
sion of the documents created for the calculator
based product StarPilot-86 (SP-86) and PC based
StarPilot-PC (SP-PC). If you are familiar with the
workings of SP-PC or SP-86 then you will feel of all StarPilot functions. This is the starting
right at home with this application. If you are new place for all operations. The back cover of the
to the product line then you will find this program Guide shows which functions are reached from
intuitive and easy to use. Although this manual each of these. Note the cursor is on the 1. You
refers specifically to the StarPilot-89 (SP-89), it can press [ENTER] to execute the Settings menu,
is also the manual for the StarPilot-92 Plus (SP- or you can press the [1] key. Likewise you can
92+) and StarPilot-V200 (SP-V200). These last scroll down to the 3 and press [ENTER] or with-
two run on the TI-92 Plus and TI Voyage 200 cal- out scrolling press [3] to execute the Sight Reduc-
culators from Texas Instruments. All three calcu- tion function. Scrolling is done with the 4 arrow
lators are identical in operation differing only in keys, top right of the key board. Later in the guide
speed, screen size, and amount of free memory. we organize all functions according to the key se-
quence you follow starting on this screen.
The quick start instructions are intended to get
users familiar with celestial navigation and the Starting StarPilot. . .
“StarPilot” approach to navigation off to a run- In many cases just turning the calculator on with
ning start. If you are new to celestial naviga- the [ON] key will lead you to the main index
tion you may consider reading the manual start- shown above. If it does not, then follow with the
ing at the “Introduction” found in the next sec- [ENTER] key, if that does not work, then [F1],
tion. Many examples and additional documenta- [ENTER] will do it. The required operation will
tion for StarPilot can be found at our web site. depend on how you exited the program or how
Please visit the StarPilot home page at http: you shut it off. If all else fails the following se-
//www.starpilotllc.com for a detailed discus- quence will get you into StarPilot no matter what
sions on many celestial topics. mode the calculator is in:
We at StarPilot are proud to bring this product to




2nd  ESC   1
you and feel confident you will find StarPilot an
invaluable navigational tool.
To quit,
Menu Structure. . . just put it away left on, it will go off in 2 minutes,
In this manual, we indicate keys with square and then the [ON] key brings you straight back
brackets with the key label inside, i.e. [ENTER] to where you quit. Hitting [F5][F6] will also turn
is the Enter key, bottom right of the keyboard. off the unit. The first [F5] invokes the “custom”
The screen below is the main menu or index menu and the second [F6] turns the calculator off.
Hitting the [ON] key anywhere while executing
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 7

StarPilot will cause you to exit to the TI-89 stan- 12.3247 12h 32m 47s
dard operating mode. You will then need to restart
the StarPilot. On output they are displayed as 12:32:47. Note
User defined values that sometimes you might enter a time of 19.2100
are entered in the Settings menu, item 1 on the and then see the display as 19:20:60. This is a
main Index menu. There are 4 screens of settings, quirk of the TI-89 that we cannot avoid.
which we call [S1] to [S4.] To get to [S1] press StarPilot uses “watch time” (WT) for all events
the [1] key once from the main menu. To get to
and book keeping. For celestial computations,
[S2], press [1] twice, etc. Refer to the Table of
GMT is obtained from:
Contents to see what is entered on each Setting
screen.
GMT WT  WE  ZD
[ESC] is your friend
[ESC] at any prompt or menu will get you back
to the menu that executed the operation. So, if where ZD is the zone description of the watch and
you are in the middle of a “Star” sight reduction WE is the watch error. If WE 0 and ZD 0, then
and you make a mistake entering data you can WT GMT which is the same as UT or UTC. All
hit [ESC] which will get you back to the Sight times are 24h, i.e. 2 min and 5 sec past 2PM
Reduction menu and you can re-select “Star” to 14.0205. WE and ZD are entered in the Settings 3
redo the sight. Data that you entered in the pre- menu [S3]. WE is in seconds, ZD in whole hours,
vious sequence will be remembered. Continue  for West,  East, but we do not enter the 
hitting [ENTER] until you reach the erroneous sign.
value, change it, and off you go. SR mode ON means StarPilot asks for all input
Hitting [ESC] in a menu will cause a return to the for each sight. With SR mode OFF, StarPilot
previous menu. This is the same as pressing [7]. will read IC, HE, Limb, and DR position from
[ESC] at the “Index” menu will shut the calculator the user settings and only prompt for WT and Hs,
off. the sextant reading. (If DR position is set to 0.0,
however, it will ask for that even in OFF mode.)
Enter angles
as deg.min (d.m), i.e. All fixes are running fixes, so course and speed
must be entered if underway. You will be
48.325 48o 32  5 prompted for these when needed.
To change an input
N Lat & E Lon are  , S Lat & W Lon are  , you can use the back arrows, and then retype or
entered with the (  ) key bottom right of the key- use [DEL] key or [CLEAR] to take out entire en-
pad, i.e. 122o 14  2 W  122  142. A Lat or any try.
angle like 12o 5  3 must be entered as 12.053, the
To interrupt on-going computation
leading 0 is important.
press [ON] or [2nd][QUIT]. This is equivalent
Enter times to Escape [ESC] key on a computer – it is sort of
as hr.minsec (h.ms), i.e. like the rule for index error corrections, “If it’s on,
8 StarPilot, LLC

take it off”. Here the [ON] key is your major OFF tines of the StarPilot have been tested for many
button. . . So if you want an instant bail out of years now, but each each new edition of this
some menu or calculation, press the [ON] key. . . User’s Guide presents us with new opportunities
If you simply made an error entering data and you for typos as we add new features to the program
are not in the middle of a computation then use or improve its interface. If you run across typos,
[ESC]. errors, or unclear sections, please drop us a note at
[email protected]. We will address the issue
Note that you cannot hurt the calculator nor the immediately, and update the on-line version.
StarPilot program in any way by randomly press-
ing keys. Have no fear and click away. If you To update to a newer version of StarPilot. . .
get to a section or computation you want to leave, first download the latest version from www.
just do [ON]. Do not, however, get out the TI- starpath.com and follow the instructions that
89 manual and look up how to erase the complete come with it to install the new program. Instal-
memory and then do so, which requires you to lation instructions are also found in the Appendix
twice say you want to erase the memory and then of this manual.
answer “yes” to “Are you sure?”. To use the calculator for math. . .
In short, do not erase the memory. It is like re- that is, to interrupt navigation routines for sim-
formatting the C-drive on your PC. If you do so, ple (or even complex) math computations, do
you have to start all over, with a new program in- [F5][F5]. This will invoke the StarPilot built in
stall and the KEY delivered to you from StarPilot calculator. Type in your calculations and hit [EN-
usually found on a sticker on the back of the cal- TER] to see the result. When done hit [ESC] and
culator’s lid. you are back to StarPilot. [F5][F5] does not work
if you are being prompted for a value. It only
– More –
works from a menu. If you are at a prompt then
Is displayed whenever there are multiple screens
[ESC][F5][F5] will do what you want.
of output data. When you see a “–More–” screen
simply hit the [ENTER] key to display the next
screen. You will be returned to the StarPilot when Important note:
all the data has been displayed. If you exit the StarPilot and use the
Menu Map TI calculator for non-routine calcu-
A diagram showing all menus and how they are lations such as statistical analysis or
linked is shown on the back cover. Reference to plotting of graphs then it is impera-
this picture will he helpful as you learn your way tive that you do a “Set Defaults” (Set-
around the program. tings [S4][2]) upon re-entry to StarPi-
lot. The TI statistic and plotting rou-
Settings locations tines share variables with the StarPi-
The back cover also has a summary of the settings lot and you will observe syntax errors
used. A date, for example, is stored in Settings when entering data into the StarPilot
menu 1, position 2, so we might say Date 1-2. unless you re-set these variables to a
Old routines, new manual. . . known state using the “Set Defaults”
The basic computations and mathematical rou- function.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 9

Where’s StarPilot? a description of the calculation along with screen

If you can’t find a StarPilot menu no matter captures of a detailed example.
what key you press, then you have somehow
got out of the program. No problem. Press
[2nd][QUIT][  [1] and you will be back under- Your First Sight Reduction
way.
The following data is from the Sun Sight Re-
Tip on typos. . . duction Section ([3][1]) of the manual discussed
StarPilot takes all positive values without a  sign in more detail here for the benefit of first time
and all negative values using the [(  )] key next to StarPilot users. Here is the data:
the ENTER key, do not use the [  ] sign or the [  ]
sign that is located just above it for data input. If GMT 15h 35m 42s
you do use either of these by mistake, you will get Date Sept 10, 1996
an error message saying “Invalid input” in minus- DR Latitude 34o 55 N
cule font at the very bottom of the screen. Use the DR Longitude 35o 50 W
arrow and delete keys to fix your mistake and off Hs 54o 58  8 for lower limb Sun
you go. HE 10 feet
IC 2  5 (i.e. 2  5 OFF the scale)
Abbreviations
During the operation of StarPilot you will notice Step 1 - Turn on your calculator and start up
the use of many abbreviations. These abbrevi- the StarPilot program if it isn’t already running.
ations, unfortunately, are caused by the TI-89’s If you received your SP-89 from StarPilot then
limited screen width which only permits the use simply turning on the calculator should display a
of a maximum of 22 characters. screen like the following:

Quick Start Examples

Most of the examples presented in this section are

quite advanced but we start out with a simple one
intended for users new to StarPilot. Once you
complete this sight you may want to read through
the manual first and come back to the other quick
start examples after you are more familiar with
If you don’t see the **StarPilot** index menu
operating your StarPilot.
then do the following. Hit the [ON] key again
Note that each topic in the manual is illustrated (This will exit the StarPilot program if you are
with a detailed self consistent example. If, for executing some function or are in a menu other
example, you want to know how to compute great than the index) and then do [2nd][QUIT][ ][1].
circle routes then look in the table of content for [QUIT] is the [ESC] key (preceded by [2nd])

lo-
the page number of the great circle function and cated near the top center of the keyboard. [ ] is
open the manual to that page. There you will find the green diamond key located near the top left.
10 StarPilot, LLC

[1] is the number 1 key. You should now be in the

index menu.
Step 2 - Use the down arrow key to move the cur-
sor to menu entry 3 which is labeled “Sight Re-
duction” and hit [ENTER].
Step 3 - You should now be in the **Sight Reduc-
tion** menu which looks like: Step 6 - Hitting [ENTER] after entering Hs (i.e.
54.588) will yield the result. Your StarPilot
screen should now look like:

Since the cursor is placed on the “Sun” menu en-

try simply hit [ENTER] to start your sight reduc-
tion.
The first line in the display tells you
Step 4 - You should now see a “WT?” on the what body was sighted. The second line,
screen with a blinking cursor. WT stands for “#/WT/Hs/Zn/Int(nm)” describes what the num-
watch time which equals UTC (or GMT) time bers following it mean. The # goes with the
when the Zone description is 0. Since StarPilot 1 which is the sight number, WT goes with
ships with a zone description of 0 what you need 015:35:42 which is the watch time you entered,
to enter here is the GMT of the sight or 15.3542. Hs is 054o 58  8 again a number you entered.
Note the format. Times are entered as hhh.mmss Zn is the Azimuth which is 214oT. And finally
where hh the hour portion, mm the minutes, Int(nm) corresponds to the intercept in nautical
and ss the seconds. Use the delete key ([ ]) next miles or 9.5 towards.
to the [CLEAR] key to fix any errors. You can use
Step 7 - Your sight is now complete. Hitting [EN-
[CLEAR] to erase the whole line to start over. Hit
TER] again will clear the screen and return to the
[ENTER] after you type in the time.
StarPilot sight reduction screen.
Step 5 - Continue entering data being careful to
enter the “  ” signs needed to represent west lon-
gitudes and lower limb. When entering the minus Date Input for Sight Reductions and Fixes
make sure you use the [(  )] key located to the left
of the [ENTER] key. The subtraction key above Earlier versions of the program assumed that ce-
the [ENTER] key will not work. Your calculator lestial fixes were made from data on the same
display should now look like the following: date, since we assumed most users would choose
to use the optional Zone Description input and
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 11

thus be using effectively local time for the sights. we are using GMT, and it has set SR mode to ver-
In practice this is still the most convenient means ify ON so it will ask for HE, IC, and limb each
of sight reduction since you can as well store the time. Then go back to the main index.
Watch Error and thus correct all sight times auto- From main index, press [3] for Sight Reduction,
matically at the input. then [1] for sun. Then input the data from sight 1
Some users, however, prefer to record and ana- as shown in Figure 1.
lyze all sights using only GMT. In these cases
we must be careful about the date since it could Figure 1: Running fix using date – sight 1
change or not change within a series of sights or
during a long running fix depending on our lon-
gitude. To accommodate this approach, we now
store the date of each sight reduction along with
the other data, which means that unless the date is
stored in the settings, it will be requested at each
sight reduction and again when computing a fix
from that set of sights. The example below will
illustrate the modification.

Example of Running Fix Using GMT and Date

Sight 1. 22h 05m 10s on Apr 14, 2000 GMT, This first sight yielded an LOP of a 4  1 Away
DR 40o 58 N, 135o 20 W, S 8.0 kts, C from 208  8o, based on an assumed position equal
o
225 T, lower limb sun Hs 55o 31  2 , HE 9 to the DR position we entered. The a-value was
ft, IC 1  5 On. valid at the time and date we entered.
Now from the **Sight Reduction** screen select
Sun again and enter the data for Sight 2, as shown
Sight 2. 01h 36m 02s on Apr 15, 2000 GMT, in Figure 2, which results in an LOP of 5  9 Away
DR 40o 38 , 135o 46 W, S 8.0 kts, C from 263  2o. Again, the result is based on the DR
o
225 T, lower limb sun Hs 22o 36  2 , HE 9 position and time we entered.
ft, IC 1  5 On. To get a fix from these, we must now ad-
vance the first to the second with the course and
speed. This is done from [6] on the **Sight Re-
Solution: duction** screen or from the **Celestial Fix**
First Set defaults using [S4][2], so all start the screen, which you get to from [4] on the main in-
same way, i.e. from main index screen, press key dex (**StarPilot**). From the **Celestial Fix**
[1] 4 times, then key [2]. The main things we screen choose [2] Fix by Computation – this im-
have done here is set all date info to 0 so it will plements a running fix according to a US Naval
ask for these each time, and it has set ZD 0 so Observatory formula.
12 StarPilot, LLC

How StarPilot Handles Dates

Figure 2: Running fix using date – sight 2
Several functions in StarPilot use date as an input.
Sight reduction and Celestial fix are two of them.
It is important to keep in mind how StarPilot han-
dles dates. If there are any values other than zero
stored in any component of the date (day, month,
or year) then it will read that value when execut-
ing a date sensitive function rather than ask for
it. For example, in the previous exercise, had we
stored 2000 in the year and 4 in the month, it
would have asked only for the day on each sight
and fix. This is a very convenient option, but we
must remember how it works to avoid errors.
Alternatively, you can choose to leave day, month,
The calculator will first ask for a DR position. It and year set to 0 and then StarPilot will ask for
does not matter which you use, but generally one these at every stage of every sight and fix. Prac-
would choose the DR position that corresponds to tice with the various modes in various circum-
the fix time that you will be asked for since these stances will lead you to the best choice for the
two positions are automatically compared at the job.
end of the computation. A fix time rounded off
to something near the time of the last LOP might
be reasonable (i.e. 0136 GMT on 4/15/00). The How StarPilot Handles DR Positions
input and results are as follows:
As with the date input mentioned just above, sev-
eral functions in StarPilot use DR position as an
input, and it is equally important to keep in mind
how StarPilot handles this data if stored. If there
are any values other than zero stored in DR Lat or
DR Lon, then StarPilot will read that value when
executing a function that needs it rather than ask
for it. Like the date handling, this offers very con-
venient time-saving options, especially since the
DR position can be updated internally with other
The running fix is at 40o 39  5 N, 135o 38  4 W.
programs, but we must keep in mind how it works
From the entered DR position, you would get to
to be sure we are doing what we think we are.
this fix by traveling 5.95 miles in direction 075oT,
that is how much the DR was off. Upd DR ques- Illustrations of the use of the feature are shown
tion means do you want StarPilot to put this last below (redoing the same running fix as before),
fix position into the stored DR location for further but remember you can shut off this automatic
use. reading anytime by simply entering zeros into the
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 13

DR position or by executing Set Defaults which Same Running Fix Using Local or Other Time
does the same. Zone and Other Shortcuts.

Suppose in the last example we kept all clocks

set to ZD  7 corresponding to PDT as we sailed
How StarPilot Handles Times across. Now we work the same set of sights using
this option, plus a couple other shortcuts.
StarPilot performs all time functions using
“Watch Time” (WT) which differs from GMT by
Sight 1. 15h 05m 10s on Apr 14, 2000 (ZD 7),
a Watch Error and a Zone Description: GMT
DR 40o 58 N, 135o 20 W, S 8.0 kts, C
WT WE  ZD. These two offsets from GMT, o
225 T, lower limb sun Hs 55o 31  2 , HE 9
or UT as it is now called, are entered in setting 3-
ft, IC 1  5 On, WE 0.
5. Set Defaults puts both of these equal to zero
so that WT GMT. If you have a ZD other
than zero set, then many of the time-dependent
answers will be labeled as being valid at, for ex- Sight 2. 18h 36m 02s on Apr 14, 2000 (ZD 7),
ample, GMT  8 for times in PST or ZD  8. If lower limb sun Hs 22o 36  2 , HE 9 ft, IC
you prefer GMT only, then set defaults and leave 1  5 On, WE 0. Note we have Watch error 0
ZD and WE 0. and we do not yet know the DR at the second
sight, but course and speed are the same.

How StarPilot Handles IC, HE, Limb Solution:

Set defaults (setting 4-2), then at [S3][5], enter
ZD 7 and WE 0. Also go to [S2][5], set SR
These data are primarily used in sight reductions. mode OFF, then at [S2][2], [3], [4] set IC
You have two options for entering these sight  1  5 , HE 9.0 ft, limb  1. Then set the date
data: store them in the settings and always use in [S1][2], as day 14, month 4, year 2000.
the stored values, or choose to input them each
time for each sight. For routine sights underway, Then in [S1][3] set DR Lat 40.58 and DR Lon
 135.20. Then go to [S4][5] and set DR mode
the former is clearly better, but for practice do-
ing examples or problems from a text book, the Speed, which will ask for DR time 15.0510,
latter method is likely better. You choose which Course 225, and Speed 8.0. Now check with
you want with the “SR mode,” that is, sight reduc- setting 1-6, to verify that all is set right (See Fig-
tion mode. It is set in [S2][5]. SR Verify ON ure 3).
means enter them every sight, SR Verify OFF Then do the first sun sight reduction by selecting
means read them from the settings. . . which also, [3][1] from the index menu and note you will only
of course, means you must enter them there first. be asked for the time and Hs and then will get the
All of these shortcut options are illustrated in the same LOP.
next example.
14 StarPilot, LLC

which is the same LOP we got before (very

Figure 3: Settings for running fix example
slightly different since we have a slightly differ-
ent DR). Now do Celestial Fix option [2]and the
answer is same as before:

The logical next step is accept the offer to update

the DR and then carry on with the navigation. The
running fix is complete.
This illustration of using stored values is not so
much shorter in this particular example, but note
we have only 2 sights here. Normally you would
have (or should have) 4 or 5 sun sights at each
sight session, and then this method is very much
Now go to the main index and select [5] Update quicker. Note, too, how the DR function is incor-
DR, and enter the time of second sight. The “1” porated into the sight routine automatically, and
stores the new DR for later use. we do not have to re-enter that position. We could
also update the DR using log settings (set DR
mode log).
We could also have updated the DR after a se-
ries of course and speed changes if these had been
made between the two sets of sights, but if that
were the case, then when doing the fix itself, one
should use the speed made good and course made
good between sight sessions when “course” and
Now we can do the second sight. “speed” are asked for.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 15

INTRODUCTION manual in pdf format on the StarPilot CD. For

navigation applications, however, you should not
need any extra information from that large book.
Disclaimer We are only using a few keys for the StarPilot
application, all menu driven. If you do look at
This sight reduction procedure is provided to the that book, do not follow the recommendation they
sailing community on an AS IS basis. No war- give for erasing the memory. If you follow those
ranty of any kind, including MERCHANTABIL- very explicit instructions you can indeed erase the
ITY or FITNESS FOR PURPOSE, is made with StarPilot from the calculator and then will need to
regard to this software. Although the author has contact StarPilot for another installation.
made every effort to comply with equations and
methods described in the explanation section of
the Nautical Almanac and other sources, no guar-
antees are made concerning the accuracy of this Installing StarPilot
sight reduction procedure. The author or StarPi-
lot, LLC, or any of their agents or resellers shall StarPilot as delivered by StarPilot loaded into a
not be liable for any errors or for incidental or TI-89 calculator comes fully functional, no fur-
consequential damages in connection with the ther installation or programming is required. If,
furnishing, performance, or use of this software. however, you already own a TI-89 and have
Please use this product at your own risk. chosen to purchase the software-only option for
StarPilot or you are upgrading your StarPilot to
the latest version then you will need to follow the
Features installation procedure provided with the software.

The StarPilot software described here is intended The procedure is slightly different for PCs than
to run on a TI-89 programmable calculator. This for Mac’s, but full details are available with the
product computes altitude, azimuth and intercept software products – either on-line when down-
for Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars sights using an loading or on the StarPilot CD when purchased
internal perpetual almanac in addition to provid- in that version. Please refer those instructions for
ing a complete suite of navigational functions. installation.

The TI-89 calculator has an 8 row by 22 column When you first install StarPilot, you should see
graphics display, 192 Kbytes of RAM, 700Kb of the screens below. Press enter at the –More–
ROM and fast processing power. It comes with prompt to get to the key screen.
a durable plastic cover and runs on 4 AAA bat-
teries and a lithium CR1620 memory backup bat-
tery. The calculator consumes very little power.
See battery notes later in this section.
The calculator has a manual of its own which cov-
ers more mathematical use of the calculator and
how to program it. We include a copy of this
16 StarPilot, LLC

Here is where you enter the KEY you obtained decimal – the decimal is optional. Leading zeros
from StarPilot. The KEY is unique to your cal- (i.e. 090) are optional but recommended.
culator and good for the life of the unit. Record
Sextant altitude (Hs), latitude, longitude, GHA,
your KEY in a safe place for future use when up-
SHA, and declination (DEC) values are entered in
grading or re-installing StarPilot. Note this step
ddd.mmm format, which we abbreviate as “d.m”
is required for upgrading your software or for re-
format. For example the value 34o 55  2 is en-
installing it if you have loaded another program
tered as 34.552, 34o 5  1 as 34.051, and 35o 0  6
into the TI-89.
as 35.006.
Detailed instructions for loading and initializing
Index Correction (IC) is entered as decimal min-
the StarPilot are in the Appendix. If there are any
utes (mm.m) format, i.e. an index error of  3  3 is
questions about this, please contact StarPilot at
entered as  3.3. When entering IC, values should
[email protected] or 865-379-8723 or by fax
have a minus (  ) for “on the scale” errors and no
at 865-681-5017.
sign (i.e. implicit  ) for “off” errors. Horizontal
Parallax (HP) and Additional Planet Correction
(PCORR), used in some specialized applications,
Data Representation are also entered as mm.m.

Periodically StarPilot will prompt you for data Resultant data, such as computed altitude (Hc),
such as the time of a sight, DR latitude or lon- azimuth (Zn), and time, are also displayed in d.m
gitude, GHA, SHA, and declination. The format format. Unlike the data entry format above, you
used to enter these and other values depends on will see results displayed as nnno nn  n . All re-
the type of data to be entered. sultant values are displayed in this format with a
few exceptions such as the intercept which is dis-
All time values are entered in hour-minute-second played in nautical miles (nm).
(h.ms) format. This is accomplished by entering
the time values as numbers in the following for- The following sign conventions apply when enter-
mat hh.mmss where the hh corresponds to hour ing data. Positive values for LAT, DEC and LON
portion of the time and the .mmss correspond to are entered for North and East. Negative values
the minutes and seconds. Note that 2 digits must for LAT, DEC and LON are entered for South and
be used to represent each of the minutes (mm) and West. A positive intercept is considered to be TO-
seconds (ss) fields. For example the time corre- WARDS the sighted body while a negative inter-
sponding to 15h 5m 42s is entered as 15.0542. cept value is considered to be AWAY. When com-
puting latitude by the Sun’s meridian passage, ob-
On the other hand, times are displayed in the served altitudes facing south are entered as nega-
hh:mm:ss format. For example, a time entered tive while north-facing observations must be en-
as 17.0822 would then be displayed as 17:08:22, tered as positive.
and the various times computed by StarPilot are
Note, however, that we do not use the “  ” sign
displayed in that format.
for entering positive numbers. Values entered into
Compass bearings, courses, and heading data are the calculator are assumed to be positive unless a
entered in ddd.d format. That is, three digits and a “  ” is entered before the value. Entering a “  ”
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 17

will cause an error.

Likewise, do not use the subtraction sign “  ” (i.e.
the [  ] key above [  ]) for negative values. This
too will cause an error. When entering negative
values you must use the [(  )] key immediately to
the left of the [ENTER] key.
The year of an event should always be entered in All StarPilot functions are accessible via menus.
full 4-digit format 1998, not 98. Valid values for After starting, StarPilot displays it’s main menu.
day are 1 through 31, and 1 through 12 for month. Each StarPilot menu consists of a menu title fol-
StarPilot will happily complete sight reductions lowed by a number and a description. To execute
for the year 98 AD, without blinking, so be sure the desired function simply press the numeric key
to use the full date you want. Other than that obvi- which corresponds to the desired action or use the
ous caution, there are no so-called Y2K concerns arrow keys to highlight the action followed by the
with this product. [ENTER] key.
To shut off StarPilot from the main Index menu,
press [7] or push the [ESC] key. To shut down
StarPilot Operation from elsewhere in the program, do [F5][F6] (Note
that [F6] [2nd][F1]) – if you do this in the mid-
StarPilot is based on a TI-89 scientific/graphing dle of a computation, you may have to do it again
programmable calculator and as such can be used once the operation completes. Alternatively, you
as a general purpose calculator in addition to pro- can just set StarPilot aside when done. It will hap-
viding many navigational features. If you pur- pily go off on its own in 2 minutes, and using this
chased the program installed, it will be active method as standard procedure will have no signif-
when you get it. Just turn the calculator on to see icant effect on battery life.
the main Index menu, labeled **StarPilot**.
Data entered is not lost when you exit the pro-
To start the program after an upgrade or new in- gram. Information from completed sights and
stallation, press [2nd][VAR-LINK], arrow down your preferred settings are maintained for later
to spsetup, and hit [ENTER]. You should now see use even if you turn the calculator off. The second
“spsetup(” on the command line. Finish the com- and third mode of exiting the application are par-
mand by typing “)”. “spsetup()” should now be ticularly useful if you decide to abandon a sight
displayed at the bottom of the screen. Hit [EN- before completing it. Sight information is stored
TER] to execute the StarPilot initialization pro- in memory only after a sight reduction sequence
gram which will unarchive from ROM, install, has been completed. Quitting the application dur-
and initialize the program. See the Appendix for ing a sight reduction will discard all sight pa-
a detailed instructions. rameters specific to the current sight in progress,
but not affect information from sights previously
You will see the following screen after success-
completed.
fully starting the StarPilot application.
Executing [ENTER] immediately after terminat-
18 StarPilot, LLC

ing the program by one of the above methods will in this Guide we will refer to this sequence as
instantly re-start the program. [S4][2], meaning it is the second option on the
4th settings screen.
The [ESC] key can be used at any time to cause a
return action. Pressing [ESC] at the StarPilot In-
1. Turn your calculator on and start StarPilot.
dex menu will shut the calculator off, while press-
ing [ESC] in a sub-menu will cause the program 2. Press [ENTER] or the [1] key to get:
to return to the previous menu.
[ESC] at any prompt will get you back to the
menu that executed the operation. So, if you are
in the middle of a “Star” sight reduction and you
make a mistake entering data you can hit [ESC]
which will get you back to the Sight Reduction
menu and you can re-select “Star” to redo the 3. Repeat twice more to get to:
sight. Data that you entered in the previous se-
quence will be remembered. Continue hitting
[ENTER] until you reach the erroneous value,
change it, and off you go.
Periodically StarPilot will prompt you for a nu-
meric value such as the time of a sight. Enter
4. Then scroll to 2 and [ENTER] or just press
the necessary value by typing its numeric equiv-
alent in the corresponding entry format followed the [2] key and that will reset the calculator
by [ENTER] (See the Data Representation Sec- to defaults and show this screen:
tion). Values entered may be corrected at any
time prior to the execution of [ENTER]. To to-
tally reenter a value depress the [CLEAR] button.
To correct a specific digit or to partially correct
a number use the arrow keys to position the cur-
sor followed by the correct value. The [DEL] key
may be used to eliminate unwanted digits at the There are many optional settings in the StarPilot
cursor. Please refer to the data entry portion of so you may want to use this process at some point
your calculator manual for more information on to get reoriented. See section [4][2] for details,
entering data. including a complete list of the specific values of
the default settings.
Resetting Factory Defaults
The Custom Menu
At times it may be desirable to reset your cal-
culator to a known state. This can easily be ac- Pressing any one of the function keys (F1-F5)
complished using the following procedure. Later (as will [2nd][CUSTOM] or [HOME]) will cause
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 19

the calculator to display a menu at the top of the [F1] Index() - Starts up the StarPilot.
screen allowing access to StarPilot’s most com-
[F2] Util 1
monly used functions.
The custom menu may be invoked anytime re- 1. View() - View user settings.
gardless of whether StarPilot is running or not. 2. CandS() - Set Course and
After turning the calculator on while running Speed
StarPilot, pressing the one of the 5 function keys 3. DR() - Update DR.
(F1-F5) will display menu 7 choices, 3 of which 4. TSD - Time, Speed, Distance
are pull down menus presenting additional op- calculator.
tions. Pressing the [F5] key twice (the first one is
needed to display the custom menu), for example, [F3] Util 2
will take you directly to the StarPilot calculator
1. Srise() - Sun rise, set, equ of
function. Pressing [F2], for example, will display
time, LAN, Hs max.
4 choices in a menu. Arrowing down to choice
“3:” and hitting enter will take you directly to the 2. Plan() - Graphical sight plan-
function that updates your DR position. Once the ner.
selected action has completed the calculator re- 3. ID() - Star/Planet identifica-
turns to the state it was in prior to the execution tion.
of the function. 4. Time() - Time calculator.
5. Ang() - Angle calculator.
[F4] Util 3
1. DRpos() - Enter a new DR po-
sition.
2. Dest() - Enter destination posi-
tion.
3. RLGC() - Rhumbline and
Great circle computation.
If StarPilot does not go directly to the selected
4. Curr() - Current sailings menu.
function after pressing the selected key, it will in-
stead print the name of the function you selected. 5. Pilot() - Piloting menu.
At that point, press [ENTER] to go there. This [F5] Calc() - StarPilot built in calculator
different behavior is a result of invoking the cus- function.
tom option from either within or outside of the
StarPilot program. [F6] Off() - Turns off the TI-89 calculator.

The following is a listing of the options available [F7] Done() - Closes the Custom menu
through the custom menu when executed from display. (Done() will not appear if
within StarPilot. (If you execute it from outside you have entered the custom menu
the program, you get Piloting as the last option.) from outside of StarPilot.)
20 StarPilot, LLC

The –More– Scroller [Any other key] Brings up a context sensitive

menu of choices.
After completing a computation or when pre-
senting a sequence of data to the user, StarPilot
When viewing the Star List or reviewing sights or
clears the screen, prints the requested data and
when viewing settings (each of which has several
then prompts the user for some action by printing
screens of data), the up or left and down or right
“–More–” at the bottom of the screen. For exam-
arrows let you go forward and backward through
ple, After computing a sun sight, StarPilot might
the list.
display

About Batteries

The TI-89 uses 4 AAA batteries. New ones

will last about 1 year, and as they get weaker
the contrast

will fade and require increasing with
the [ ][  ] key, which after you push it shows a
darker screen. Eventually the calculator will an-
nounce that the batteries are low and should be
In the simple case where only one screen of data is changed. A low battery indicator appears in the
presented, hitting any of the key sequences listed lower right hand of the screen indicating the state
below will clear the screen and return to the pre- of batteries. After about 2 weeks of usage in this
vious menu. In the case where multiple screens of state the calculator goes off and will not come on
data are displayed, the desired actions can be ex- till the batteries have been replaced.
ecuted by selecting the appropriate key sequence.
The following list describes the supported key se- No program information or user settings will be
quences. lost if the AAA batteries go dead, as there is an
internal backup Li battery that will last up to 5
years, although it would be best to replace it every
[ENTER] Display the next screen of data or re-
3 or 4 years.
turn to previous menu if displaying the last
screen in a sequence. When changing the Li back up battery, be sure
that you have a good set of 4 AAA batteries in
[ESC] Return to calling menu. the TI-89. The AAAs protect the system during
[DEL] When displaying a sequence of sights the time you change the Li battery (CR1616 or
stored in memory, delete the one being dis- CR1620).
played. Note the calculator will not run on the Li bat-
[2nd][QUIT] Exit the application. tery alone; it is intended only as backup while the
AAA’s are replaced. The AAAs can be dead or
[Arrow_key] Moves to the next or previous out of the machine for an extended period with
screen. no effect on the memory or program.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 21

Note that an archive of the StarPilot is stored in

Figure 4: StarPilot’s 4 “Settings” menus.
ROM so it’s not a big deal if all the batteries go
dead. Simply replace the dead batteries with fresh
ones, unarchive, and initialize the StarPilot and
you are off. Instructions for re-installing from
ROM or from a computer are found in the Ap-
pendix.
The batteries are fresh when shipped from StarPi-
lot. For convenience, we recommend that users
write the replacement date or due date on a piece
of paper or label and attach it to the calculator or
its housing.

Contrast Adjustments

[S1]**Settings 1**
To increase  the contrast, do [ ][  ] and to de-
crease it do [ ][  ]. With new batteries the screen The first option in Settings 1 is to go on to Set-
will be solid black and you will need to decrease tings 2 (More Settings), so we start each discus-
the contrast before you can see characters. As sion with the second item which we would call
the batteries wear down the display will become [S1][2], the Date, and so forth.
lighter and you will need to increase the contrast.

[S1][2]Date
Functions by key strokes
The date is used to identify celestial sight times
In the following, each function of the program is as well as the current DR position, and for sight
described in order of its keyboard access, starting planning. The date to enter is the date on your
from the main menu screen above. watch that you are using for the sight times. If
using GMT time, use GMT date, and if local time,
use local date.
[1]**Settings**
StarPilot stores a number of user defined options
that makes sight reduction and DR more conve-
nient. Access the list of settings from the key [1]
option on the main index which takes you to the
first of 4 pages of settings, which we call S1 to S4
(see Figure 4).
22 StarPilot, LLC

[S1][3]DR Lat/Lon a true course. You can change this back and forth
as you see fit.
The stored date and DR position will be assumed
as the current date and DR position in all calcula-
tions and StarPilot will therefore stop prompting
the user for these values. Executing a factory reset
([S4][2]) or manually resetting the date or DR po-
sition to 0 will cause the program to start prompt-
ing for the corresponding values once again.

These values of C and S are used automatically

for DR updates, but when it comes time to evalu-
ate a running fix, you will be asked to enter these
for each fix so you are certain that the proper val-
ues are entered for the fix computation. In princi-
ple you could be doing a routine DR computation
with one set of values, but then want to use some
effective CMG or SMG for evaluating sights with
course changes made during the sight sequence.
[S1][4]Dest Lat/Lon (The Traverse table function [6][3][3] is a conve-
nient way to figure CMG over a series of course
changes.)
This position is used for routing sailing computa-
tions. It can be very convenient to have it stored
to save entering it for every computation. [S1][6]View Settings

This option steps you through the full list of all

[S1][5]Course/Speed (CandS) settings followed by a list of all sights stored in
the program. Use the [ENTER] key to advance
The Course/Speed entry in the Settings 1 menu is the pages. Since it is the DR position that might
used to set the vessel’s Course and Speed needed be checked most often, it is listed first. If that
for the DR function. When first invoked the pro- is all you need, just press [ESC] after you see it
cedure will prompt for a DR mode. The func- and you can go back to other functions. For quick
tion then proceeds to prompt for C and S in speed reference, the sequence of items presented in the
mode or just C only when in log mode. In the View Settings option is shown on the menu map
[CUSTOM] menu, this function is called CandS. on the back cover of this booklet.
The course will be requested with a (T) or (M) Figure 5 shows an example of what you might see
for true or magnetic depending on whether or not when there is 3 sights stored in the calculator –
the magnetic variation has been set to a non-zero these are from the Sight Reduction examples pre-
value in [S4][4]. By definition, a zero variation is sented in the Celestial Fix section.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 23

ductions without prompting when in SR mode

Figure 5: StarPilot’s view settings function
Verify OFF (see [S2][5] below), but if SR mode
Verify ON, it will be asked for on each sight,
regardless of this setting.

[S2][3]Height of Eye (HE)

The height of eye is entered in feet or meters de-

pending on how you selected the units in [S4][3].
See discussion of SR mode [S2][5] below.

[S2][4]Limb

The default limb for sun and moon sights is stored

here. Normally this would be the Lower Limb.

Note and Caution: pressing the [DEL] key while

a particular sight is displayed will delete that sight
from the sequence. This can be a convenient way
to remove bad sights as they are discovered. See Note that instead of  1 or 1 you can also enter 0
more discussion of removing sights in [4][5]. here and compute to the center of the body if you
have use for that information. This option can be
used for some artificial horizon sights where the
[S2]**Settings 2** direct and reflected images are superimposed in
the sextant.
[S2][2]Index Correction (IC)
Naturally, if you have Lower limb stored here
Enter the IC in minutes of angle, positive when and then choose to do an upper limb sight, then
OFF the scale, and negative when ON the scale, this setting must be changed for that sight. . . or
i.e.  2.5. Use the gray [(  )] key for this, not the switch to SR mode Verify ON and StarPilot
black [  ] one. The stored IC is used in sight re- will ask for this value on each sight.
24 StarPilot, LLC

[S2][5]SR Mode (the default value) in Settings will clause StarPi-

lot to assume the last date entered as default when
SR Mode stands for Sight Reduction Mode. It prompting for date.
can be set in this option to be either “Verify ON”
or “Verify OFF”. Choose ON mode when work- Turning SR Verify Mode OFF will cause SP-89
ing problems that are not related to each other (i.e. to use values in the Settings without prompting
different dates, places, bodies), as in text book ex- for them. If there are no values set in Settings
ercises, exam preparation and so forth. In ON (i.e. the default state) then prompting occurs using
mode, StarPilot will ask for all new inputs re- memory values as in SR Verify Mode ON.
quired for each sight reduction.
SR Verify Mode is a global mode that applies to
When doing sights under way, on the other hand, all StarPilot functions not just to sight reductions.
or doing a sequence of similar sights from the
same time and place, then it is much more conve-
nient to use OFF mode. In OFF mode, the stored
settings for HE, IC, Limb, and DR position will [S2][6]PC Mode
be used for each sight. Only body, WT, and Hs
will be asked for.
StarPilot has the option to “precompute” the Hc
In OFF mode it is important to verify these set- and Zn of celestial bodies for planning or analy-
tings since they will be used without asking. sis. Often we have a lot of these to do, but even
When you switch to this mode you will be re- if just a few are needed to find the body in the
minded of this. Check settings with [S1][6]. sky, for example, we do not need high precision
Note that all prompts have defaults. As you enter results. Since all hand held devices are relatively
data into SP-89 the data you entered is stored in slow in computation, we have added this option
memory. If you then reexecute the same or sim- to expedite this type of planning.
ilar function data entered prior to the current op-
eration is used as default values for the current There are two modes, Normal and High. For rou-
calculation. Hit enter to accept the default value. tine precomputations, use Normal. If you want
The default data is presented in prompts in a re- highest precision use High. For sun and stars
verse font and can easily be changed by typing there is essentially no difference in precision, be-
over it with the new value. You can also modify tween the two modes, but for the moon and plan-
the default value, using the arrow and delete keys, ets, both the precision and time differences are
before accepting it for the current operation. significant. The default mode is Normal, so it is
up to the user to switch this to High as needed.
Again, prompting with default values is known
as “SR Verify” mode or Sight Reduction Verify Note that this option has no influence on the Sight
Mode. Data entered into the settings menu over- Reduction function. That function always uses
rides default prompt values. So if you enter val- the High precision mode. These precision modes
ues into Date under settings then these values will as well as the basis of the computations are dis-
be presented as default values whenever you are cussed in the Appendix. The use of Precompute
prompted for the date. Setting date values to 0 in general is discussed under [2][4].
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 25

[S3]** Settings 3** specifically, using the visible horizon as cut off by
the actual curvature of the earth.
[S3][2]Temperature and Pressure
When using a shoreline beneath the sighted object
Temperature and pressure will be prompted for in as a horizon instead of a proper sea horizon, the
the units specified in the units setting [S4][3]. For dip correction must often be figured in a special
example the following screen has StarPilot doing manner, called “Dip Short.” This method is re-
sight reductions at 77oF and 1015 millibars. quired whenever we are actually seeing the shore-
line and not the true curvature of the earth. Dip
short depends on the Height of Eye and the dis-
tance to the shoreline directly below the object
sighted.

To decide if dip short is needed, compare the

square root of HE in feet with the distance to the
shoreline in nautical miles. If the latter is larger
than the former, then you are indeed seeing the
Extreme variations in temperature and pressure curvature of the earth cut off the shoreline and
affects the magnitude of the atmospheric refrac- you can do sight reductions in the normal man-
tion correction. Valid temperature and pressure ner. If this is not the case, then you should use Dip
settings should be entered if low-altitude sights Short (i.e. set dip mode short), and the StarPi-
are to be taken in extreme conditions. StarPilot lot will prompt you for the necessary extra input
default values are 1010 millibars and 50o F  - when doing sight reductions.
which correspond to “no additional corrections”
data from the Nautical Almanac. See “Resetting Dip short is very useful for sextant practice on in-
StarPilot to Defaults” in [S4][2] for additional in- land waters, even rather small lakes. It is usually
formation on StarPilot default values. much better to practice this way than to use an
artificial horizon. For practice, the general proce-
[S3][3]Dip Mode for Dip Short dure would be to take the sights, then figure Zn
from the sight reduction, then return to the chart
and from the known practice location and Zn you
can determine the necessary distance to the shore-
line.

Under way dip short can also, though rarely, be

of value if you happen to get close to shore but do
not know where you are and the only sextant sight
is of the sun or moon over nearby land. There are
“Normal” is the usual choice corresponding to various piloting techniques to figure distance off
typical sights using the true sea horizon, or more shore even without knowing where you are.
26 StarPilot, LLC

[S3][4]Hc Min, Max, Max Mag Cutoff

Hc-min and Hc-max are used to set limiting val-

ues for the body search routines used in the Sight
Planner [2][2] and Star/Planet ID [2][5]. Bodies
with altitudes greater than Hc max and smaller
than Hc min will not be displayed. The default
cutoff 2.0, which means the Sight Planner will
stop looking for stars and switch to planets once [S3][6]Maximum Number of Sights
all the stars of magnitude 2.0 or brighter have
been found. . . or you manually stop it with the StarPilot-89 has memory enough to store up to 60
[ESC] key. The first 20 stars in view will always celestial sights. With this setting you can limit
include the bright ones; larger numbers include this maximum number, which might help with
fainter stars which clutters the screen and rarely your bookkeeping and prevent slowing down data
helps with sight selection. review and some computations. Also note that a
The default values for Hc are 10o , 80o , but for Running Fix uses all stored sights, so if you end
use underway, settings greater than 10o and less up with more than you want in the list the results
than 80o might be better. Lower sights have a may be wrong or not optimum.
larger uncertainty due to refraction uncertainties To set this option, simply type in the desired num-
and sights higher are more difficult to take and ber at the prompt. By default the calculator keeps
require a more careful analysis. track of the last 15 sights. If a sixteenth sight is
Likewise, although 2.0 will usually get all the taken then the first sight in the sequence is dis-
bright stars you need, sometimes their will not be carded. Note that the order of the sights is im-
enough there and you will have to go higher, but portant. When replacing sights it is not the oldest
more often you can get by with a lower number sight (timewise) which is discarded but the sight
maybe just 1.5 or so. Once you optimize this, it which was reduced the earliest. Sights are num-
will typically be the same for many nights on a bered in the list. With a max set to 15, when #16 is
voyage. entered, #1 is discarded and #2 becomes #1, and
your new one becomes #15.

[S3][5]UT Offsets (ZD/WE)

[S4]** Settings 4**
StarPilot navigates using “Watch Time” (WT), [S4][2]Resetting Factory Defaults
which is defined from: UT WT  WE  ZD,
where WE is the watch error (fast is  ) and ZD
This function is discussed in the INTRODUC-
is the zone description (east is  ). The total UT
TION. It results in the following actions.
offset (WE  ZD) is entered in this setting in two
steps as shown below. UT is the same as GMT.
The internal date is cleared.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 27

DR Lat/Lon in memory is erased.

Dest position in memory is cleared.

DR mode set to OFF.

Body limb is set to LOWER.

Dip mode is set to NORMAL. Typing 1 then [ENTER] at the first question, spec-
ifies that temperatures should now be entered in
Index error is set to 0.
Fahrenheit (not centigrade), then another question
Height of eye is set to 0. will appear and the 0 entered here means pressure
in Millibars (not inches), and finally the 0 entered
Units are set to o F, mb, and ft. means use height in meters (not feet). At this
point, the last [ENTER] will return you to [S4]
Temperature is set at 50o F. screen.

Pressure is set to 1010 Millibars.

Magnetic variation set to 0. [S4][4]Local Magnetic Variation

ZD is set to 0. StarPilot by default displays and queries bearing

data in True format. Changing the default value
Watch Error is set to 0.
of the magnetic variation causes the program to
Course, Speed, Log each set to 0. display and prompt for data in magnetic com-
pass bearing format. Note that westerly variations
Hc min/max/Max Mag set to 10o /80o /2.00. should be entered as negative (  ). Many StarPilot
functions, such as the current sailings, work only
PC Mode is set to NORMAL. in True format while others such as the star/planet
finder work with either true or magnetic input. In
SR mode is set to Verify ON. all cases the program prompts for bearings and
heading will contain a (T) for true or an (M) for
Max number of sights is set to 15. magnetic depending on the state of the magnetic
variation value.
All sights stored are cleared.

[S4][3]Units

Here you enter preferred units for Height, Tem-

perature, and Pressure.
28 StarPilot, LLC

To change the default the local magnetic variation modes to select the one that is most convenient
from 0o to 7o W simply execute the menu entry for the task at hand.
and enter the requested data as shown above.
These computations can be made as part of our
ongoing navigation or as a simple navigation
computation. Once the computation is done, you
[S4][5]Setting the DR Mode
have the choice of updating the stored DR with
that result or just abandoning it.
The DR mode determines how the Update DR
function operates as well as several others. If you choose to update DR after the computation,
StarPilot has 3 DR modes: Off, Speed & Time, then the DR Lat and Lon stored will be changed
or Log. The default mode is “Off” which means to these new values. In Off mode, that is all that
that all functions that use course, speed, or time happens. In Log mode, the DR Log is updated
will prompt for the values needed to complete and in Speed mode, the DR clock is updated.
the computations. This is a “normal” or “non- With this function, you can almost literally type
interfaced” mode. It is simple and easy to use, your log book into the StarPilot, line by line, and
but not the most efficient. figure the final DR position, just entering the new
The Speed and Time mode (abbreviated Speed) course and or speed as you come to them.
assumes the traditional method of doing DR by To get started, whenever executed, the DR mode
speed and time. That is, the log book records function first prompts for the desired DR mode
positions and course changes by the time of the and then automatically calls the Course/Speed
event, and also records the active speed. function from the Settings 1 menu to set the ap-
When in the DR mode Speed, each DR posi- propriate course, speed, DR Log, and DR Time
tion stored in the calculator is associated with a depending on the mode.
specific time and speed. In this mode, you can The most common mode to use will most likely
update the DR by simply telling StarPilot the next be the Speed and time mode, unless you specif-
time you care about. It knows the time of the last ically use log readings or distance run to figure
DR position, your course and your speed, so it can a new position. We include the log mode since
compute the new DR and store it. this is indeed the most accurate way to keep DR
The “Log” mode assumes you are keeping DR records underway in small-craft at sea – that is,
records by Log reading. This works like the at each course change we record the log read-
Speed mode, but to update DR you simply input ing, since this is a more accurate measure of our
the next log reading you care about. progress than the corresponding time and speed.

With these two modes we can project our present

position into the future two ways: by either telling [S4][6]Tech Support
StarPilot we ran 45.8 miles on our course (Log
mode), or that we ran for, say, 12h 30m on our This screen gives you version number and date,
course at whatever our speed is (Speed mode). It along with a reminder about Tech support. The
is also simple to switch back and forth between most convenient and fastest source of help with
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 29

StarPilot is most likely found on-line at tech sup- [2][1]Sunrise, Set, Twilight, and LAN
port section of www.starpath.com. All updates
and a list of FAQs will be maintained there.
Check the website for latest version, which can Sunrise/LAN/Sunset computes the times of sun-
be loaded into any working StarPilot calculator at rise, sunset, nautical and civil twilight, and merid-
no charge. ian passage (LAN). Also output are the bearing
to the sun at rising and setting, height of the sun
at LAN, and the LHA Aries at the midpoint be-
tween nautical and civil twilights. Input is DR
position and date. To compute July 4, 2000 at
47.39, -122.20, enter these data in the settings. To
see local times, set the ZD (Zone Description) in
settings [3][5] , in this case  7 for PDT, and then:

EqT is the “equation of time” which is the differ-

ence between 12:00 UT and the UT of LAN ob-
served at Lon 0o . Zn R and S correspond to the
If you cannot find what you need there, please call Suns azimuth at sunrise and sunset respectively.
206-783-1414 or fax 206-783-9209.
The values of LHA Aries is used for setting up
Star Finders or Pub 249 for sight planning and star
ID, although StarPilot will itself perform these
planning functions for you.
[2]**Celestial Bodies**
The bearing of the sunrise and set relative to 090o
The functions found in this menu are used to com- and 270o is called the “amplitude” of the sun.
pute properties of celestial bodies such as time
of rise and set, star and planet identification and
compass calibration. Note that most of the opera-
tions performed in this menu use values stored in
the settings menu.
30 StarPilot, LLC

[2][2]Sight Planner just push the [ESC] key according to your desired
choice in brightness.
The sky view function (Sight Planner) graphically Once the picture is drawn, use the arrow keys to
displays a radar-like projection of the sky at a select a specific body on the screen and obtain fur-
specific time and place. The Sight Planner can ther information by pressing the [ENTER] key.
also compute the best bodies to “shoot” to obtain
the best possible fix. This feature is called Find Mercury is included and you can take sights of
Sights and is documented in the next section. it for navigation, although it is not listed in the
Nautical Almanac because it is only rarely useful.
Input are the date, time, and DR position. Active Nevertheless, StarPilot will nicely warn you when
settings also used are in [S3][4] which set upper it is there so it won’t get confused with another
and lower limits on Hc and a magnitude cutoff of star or planet.
stars to compute. Please review that section for
important details. The following example displays the position of
the brightest stars, moon, and the planets at 2200
Executing “Compute Sky” gets the ball rolling. GMT on January 1, 1998 at 12o N, 68o W.
Note that the “Best Sights”, “Replot Sky”, and
“List Bodies” menu entries will be inactive until
after “Compute Sky” is executed. The “Cntl Op-
tions” and “Find Sights” menu entries are used
to control the Find Sights option discussed in the
next section. Ignore these for now.
The program then searches through the internal
almanac for the visible stars and planets, followed
by displaying a graphical view of the sky. Note Next screens show just briefly during the search
that stars are displayed as points on the screen,
planets are identified by small X’s, the Sun is a
circle with a dot in the middle, and the moon is
displayed as a solid square.
First a quick check for the sun and moon is car-
ried out, then the stars are searched followed by
the planets. Stars are searched in order of bright-
ness with the magnitude of the current star in
view. The search progresses until the number of then the star maps are drawn. . .
stars found matches the cutoff # parameter set in
the [S3][4] settings menu before moving on to
the planet search. If you wish to see only the
brightest stars, then press [ESC] when you get to
magnitudes of 1.5 or so and that will switch to a
searching planets. In practice it rarely pays to dis-
play all the stars. A more practical approach is to
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 31

To exit the function, move the cursor out of the The control options menu defines parameters that
projection circle and hit the [ENTER] key return- are used to modify the operation of the sight plan-
ing to the “Celestial Bodies” menu. When you ner and optimizer.
exit the diagram, you have the option to list all of
Hc Min/Max/Max Mag are used by both the sight
the bodies shown using the “List Bodies” menu
planner and optimizer to set clip values during the
entry. You can re-enter the graphical plot with
search for bodies. Hc Max/Min set the Maximum
out searching through the almanac again using the
and Minimum altitudes to be considered when
“Replot Sky”. The “Replot Sky” function pro-
displaying a body. Bodies with altitudes higher
vides an easy way to pop between the graphical
than the Max setting or lower than the Min setting
view of the sky and textual lists of information
will not be displayed. Max mag defines the mag-
displayed by “List Bodies” and “Best Sights”.
nitude cutoff during the search for bodies. Only
Note that “Best Sights” is only active if the Find
bodies brighter or equal to Max mag will be dis-
Sights feature is used for sight planning.
played.
Sight Planner runs in Fast almanac mode (See Ap-
Steps, Slop, Grid Wt., Mag Wt., and Hc Wt. are
pendix 3), so if you want very precise data for
used to control the sight optimizer and are ignored
the moon or planets, it would be best to use the
by the sight planner.
Precompute function [2][4] rather than the values
from the cursor, which are intended only for set- The sight planner invokes the optimizer after sets
ting up the sextant sights or for identification. of bodies have been found that meet the almanac
search criteria defined above. The optimizer then
See www.starpath.com for notes on choosing
lays a grid consisting of 3 lines that meet at the
the best star-planet combinations for sight taking.
center of the sky projection and extend towards
the horizon at approximately 120 degrees apart.
Find Sights Stars that fall close to the grid are considered as
possible candidates for running fix triads.
SP-89 includes an improved sight planner un- The Step parameter controls the coarseness in de-
der the “**Celestial Bodies**” menu. The main grees of grid as it “steps through the sky” from
enhancement includes a feature known as “Find 0, 120, 240 degrees to 120, 240, 360. For ex-
Sights” (or Find Sights Optimizer, or simply “the ample a Step of 8 would define grids at (0, 120,
Optimizer”) which will compute sets of 3 bodies 240), (8, 128, 278), (16, 136, 286), etc. Decreas-
(or triads) which will yield optimal running fixes. ing the step value increases the computational and
Control Options memory demands of the operation which results
in longer compute times while increasing the step
speeds things up with a possible loss in accuracy.
The Slop parameter controls the distance in de-
grees a given body must be from the grid before it
will be considered as a member of a triad. In or-
der to find all possible triads the Slop factor must
be at least 2 times greater than the step. Increas-
32 StarPilot, LLC

ing the slop factor by more than 2x the step yields

a larger number of duplicate triads that must be
removed before the optimizer analyzes the triads.
Decreasing the value may result in the optimizer
missing some triads.

A step factor of 8 with a slop of 16 has been

found to be a good compromise. If a particular The “Find Sights” menu controls the bodies that
sky yields a small number of triads (or none at should be considered when computing triads.
all) the step factor should be decreased and/or the A value of “OFF” switches the Find Sights opti-
slop factor should be increased. mizer off resulting in a display of the sky with no
triads. i.e. the sight planner works exactly as de-
After all possible triads have been located the op- scribed in the previous section. The Sun, Moon,
timizer weighs them for optimal sight and run- Stars, and Planets are included in the almanac
ning fix performance. Grid Wt, Mag Wt, and Hc search.
Wt are parameters that control the “goodness” of
Stars turns the optimizer on for Stars only.
a sight triad. Grid Wt controls how close a set of
bodies must to the grid to be considered “good”. Stars + (Moon, Planets, Moon and Planets) in-
A value of 1 indicates that the grid factor is very cludes the corresponding bodies when computing
important while a value 0 indicates that any triad triads. Note that the optimizer never uses the sun
is good as long as the bodies lie within the “slop” and that the magnitude of planets is set to 0 when
factor from a grid. computing the weight factors of triads.
Compute Sky starts the ball rolling. First the
Mag Wt and Hc Wt control the importance almanac is searched. The number of bodies
of brightness and Altitude when computing the searched to date is displayed on the bottom fol-
“goodness” of triads. A value of 1 for Mag Wt lowed by the number of bodies found so far. The
means that the brighter triads should be consid- altitude, Azimuth and magnitude of the last found
ered better than dull ones. A value of 0 indicates body are displayed on the screen.
that brightness is not important. A value of Hc
Wt of 1 means that triads where the bodies are After the sky search has been completed the op-
at similar altitudes is important while a value of timizer is invoked to compute running fix tri-
0 indicates that Altitude is not important in the ads. The StarPilot displays a progress bar on the
computation of the “goodness” of a triad. screen while it completes the operation.
Note that the StarPilot does not know before hand
The StarPilot uses a default grid factor of 0.7, the number of triads that will be found so the bar
magnitude weight of 0.2, and Altitude value of indicator only approximates the actual progress.
0.1. To make brighter triads “more important” in- If a large number of triads and/or duplicate tri-
crease the value of Mag Wt. ads are found the progress indicator may indicate
100% completion before the computation is actu-
Find Sights ally completed.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 33

Finally a picture of the Sky and weighted triads Moving the cursor out of the circle and hit-
is displayed. If the computation takes more than ting [ENTER] returns SP-89 to the Sight Planner
2 minutes the automatic battery saving feature of menu.
the TI-89 will take over and the screen will turn The “Best Sights” function displays textual infor-
blank requiring the pushing of the [ON] button to mation about the triads. Firstly a summary screen
turn the calculator back on. for each triad is displayed. Delta Z, H, and I cor-
Re-executing the example Jan 1, 1998 example respond to the computed weights for Grid/Slop,
above with stars only, Hc Max 80, Hc Min Hc, and Magnitude. Additionally the name of the
10, and Mag Cutoff 1.5 we observe the follow- 3 bodies in the triad and their magnitudes are also
ing triads. displayed. The right and left arrow keys can be
used to navigate to the next/previous triad.

Hitting [ENTER] at the triad summary screen will

A picture of the sky with the “preferred” triad is yield information about the specific bodies in the
initially displayed on the screen. The 1/7 in the triad.
upper section of the screen indicates that triad 1
of 7 is currently being displayed and that it has
a computed goodness value of 2.08. A flashing
cursor initially positioned at the center is also dis-
played. Hitting [ENTER] while the cursor is in
the center of the sky will cause the StarPilot to
toggle to the next triad in the sequence. Again the
display is updated to indicate that triad 2 is being
displayed with a weight factor of 2.03. Pushing
Replot sky re-enters the graphical routine de-
[ENTER] again will cycle through all the triads.
scribed above and List Bodies lists in textual for-
Moving the cursor to a specific body on the screen mat information on all the bodies found to meet
and hitting enter will display information about the almanac search criteria.
the selected body.
Note that the bodies in the current triad are always [2][3]Sight Analyzer
at the “end” of the displayed lines. i.e. For triad 2
Aldebaran is found at Hc 26o 31  0 and Zn To learn about the theory behind this process, see
o
77 . related articles on-line at www.starpath.com.
34 StarPilot, LLC

The goal is to effectively average a series of sights To best compare the data, move the curve by plac-
to determine which one is a proper representative ing the cursor at the place you want the curve to
of the full set. To do this, we compute the theo- cross and press [ENTER] twice, and this way find
retical values of Hc over the time interval of the the best fit to the data. The first [ENTER] displays
sights stored (taking into account the motion of the WT and Hs at the cursor position if the cur-
the vessel) and then compare the slope or curve sor is not right on a data point, the second enter
of these data with the actual sights. This process will move the line. Hitting [ESC] after the first
shows which sights are outside of statistical fluc- [ENTER] will replot the display with out mov-
tuation, so they can be deleted or not considered, ing the line. If the cursor is right on a data point
and lets you choose the best of the set. when you hit [ENTER] then the analyzer will re-
port back information on that particular sight and
To execute Sight Analyzer in StarPilot, enter a set
the distance between it and the Hs  line is reported
of sights of the same body over a reasonably short
as the intercept. Find a location off of a data point
time period (10 to 20 minutes or so) using the nor-
that will place the curve (line) such that there are
mal Sight Reduction function. If the Hs values
about the same number of points above as below
change too much during your sight period (time
the line, but disregard any that are clearly far off
is too long), then the Hs scale on the calculator
the line. Then choose any one sight that is on the
display is too compressed and differences do not
line as your best. That one sight will be as good
show up well requiring the use of the sight selec-
for a fix (or better) than all the sights plotted to-
tor or zoom features described below. Once the
gether.
sights are stored, set DR mode to Speed, DR time
to the time of the first sight and enter the correct This process can also be applied to any sights.
DR position for that time, along with your course Those taken before or after LAN could be used
and speed made good over the sight period. for a “reduction to the meridian” analysis (see
older versions of Bowditch for reference).
Then from the Celestial Fix menu, select Sight
Analyzer [2][3]. The sample here shows its use To Exit the Analyzer, place the cursor on the word
for a series of sights at LAN, but it would more “Exit” and press Enter.
typically be used for any sequence of sights of the This tool is best suited for poor or sparse data.
same body. The LAN example sights have little spread, yet
we can still improve the analysis as shown.
The Analyzer will then compute the Hc value (ac-
tually a computed Hs (referred to as Hs  here), Remember that the Sight Analyzer analyzes all
since we undo all the corrections that have been stored sights, so you must limit stored sights to
applied to the sight at that time), then store this a specific, rather short sequence of sights of the
theoretical value, and then proceed on down your same body to take advantage of this feature. The
sight list, advancing the DR to the time of the next most efficient procedure is to use the sight selec-
sight, computing Hs , and storing it, until all are tor (Menu Entry [3]) which allows you to spec-
done. Next the curve of theoretical sight values is ify the sights to be analyzed. Sights can be se-
drawn as a graph and your actual sights are plot- lected individually (as in 1, 2, 3), in ranges (such
ted on the graph. Any sights that are far from the as 4-9) or any combination thereof (i.e. 1, 3, 5,
plot are most likely wrong. 7-10, 12-15).
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 35

An alternate procedure would be to enter sights in LAN Analysis Using Sight Analyzer
these short sets, analyze them, then take just one
of the set to represent the lot and write down Hs The example is a set of high LAN sights, peak-
and WT for it, then delete it and enter the next ing at about 87o , from July, 1982 in the Tropics
set and again select the best single sight from that (note it is not common practice to take sights this
group, then delete the rest and re-enter the first to high). The first picture shows all 15 sights span-
make a running fix. ning LAN, and the analyzed results are not very
interesting since the scale is too big.
You could also enter all sights, then store them
in a PC with the TI-Connect program. We will
explain this in more detail elsewhere. It is a quick
and easy process to transfer all sights and related
data to a PC and then later move them back into
the calculator. See Appendix 3 on Storing Sight
Data in a PC.

We now select sights in the range of interest us-

ing “Select Sights” menu entry. “Select Sights” is
Moving around using Zoom and Pan a filter that is applied to the sight data before it is
passed to the analyzer. Sights that are to be ana-
lyzed can be specified in the filter by enumerating
The  Zm, Pan, and  Zm provide a mechanism them individually followed by commas. For ex-
for zooming in, panning, and zooming out the ample a range of “1, 2, 4, 6, 7” specifies that four
plotted data to ease analysis. To execute one of sights should be displayed. A range is entered by
these functions simply move the blinking cursor specifying the first sight in the range followed by
over the desired tab and hit [ESC] or [ENTER]. a “  ” followed by the last sight in the range. i.e.
The analyzer will then prompt you to select the 4-9 indicates that all sights between 4 and 9 inclu-
center of the new plot. Move the cursor to the de- sive should be displayed. You can mix and match
sired new center location and hit [ENTER]. The range specifiers and comma specifiers ad hoc to
data will then be re-plotted accordingly. Note customize the analysis of your data. So, entering
that hitting [ESC] over the given tab will cause a range of 4-9 and then running the analyzer dis-
the cursor to jump to the center of the screen be- plays the following.
fore prompting for the center of the plot. Hitting
[ENTER] will leave the cursor over the tab. If the
center of the new plot is a “long” way from the se-
lected tab then you should use [ESC]. Likewise,
if the center is “close” to the tab then [ENTER]
should be selected to reduce the number of arrow
key strokes required to achieve the new center.
36 StarPilot, LLC

Set the cursor where we want the line redrawn, Option 5 lets you input a GHA and Dec directly,
and press [ENTER] to fit the data. Then move the from which it will compute LHA from the stored
cursor to the  Zm tab, hit [ESC], move the cursor Lon and use the stored Lat to find Hc and Zn. If
to the apex of the curve and hit [ENTER] again to you want to input an LHA, then do so when asked
complete the zoom in. Centering the cursor on for GHA, but set Lon 0. If you wish to in-
a apex of the curve and hitting [ENTER] prints put a sequence of these, then store Lat/Lon 0/0
information about the LAN. Move the cursor all in Setting 1-4 and it will request these each time
the way to the right (or left) of the screen and hit rather than read stored values.
[ENTER] to exit.
To precompute the expected Hc and Zn for the
Sun, for example, you get the following results.
This function reads the date and DR data in the
settings, so if these are non-zero it will use them.
In other words, if these are not what you want to
use, you must either enter the proper data in the
settings or set them to zero so you get prompted
for them. After setting stored date and DR to zero,
the input would look like:
With the use of the Analyzer we see that even with
just these few sights, we have a good LAN, and
that the next to last sight was too low and that
our peak height is a reasonable one for the LAN
value even though we slightly missed the actual
peak time. This also means that you could use the
LAN utility [6][5][1] to get a reasonable Lon as
well as Lat from the sights.
This was in Normal mode. In High mode the an-
[2][4]**Precompute** swer is the same within 0  1 – i.e. there is little
difference for the sun and stars in these modes, it
The precompute function is used to compute Hc is mostly of concern for speeding up moon and
and Zn for a body when planning sights, working planet work.
problems from a text book, or evaluating existing Please review the discussion of PC mode in
sight data. The function works exactly like the [S2][6]
Sight Reduction from the main menu with the ex-
ception that only Hc and Zn are displayed and you
have the option to perform the computations in [2][5]Star and Planet ID
“normal” mode as opposed to the slower high pre-
cision mode used in sight reductions. (Almanac With this function it is possible to identify a star
modes are discussed in Appendix 2). Precompute or planet by simply noting the altitude and bear-
mode (High or Normal) is set in [S2][6]. ing to the heavenly body. For example, say one
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 37

would like to identify a bright body observed at why it was found. But noting the magnitude of
GMT 21h 7m on September 10, 1996 at an al- the star (2.1) this is not a bright body at all. Press
titude of 31o 36 bearing 171o True, our DR po- [ENTER] to continue.
sition is 34o 30 N, 36o 30 W and our observation
First, the star search screen is displayed. Touch-
height is 10 feet.
ing the [ESC] key during the star search will
cause the calculator to move on to the planet
search. If no key is depressed then the entire
star catalog is searched. The number of bodies
searched so far is displayed at the bottom right of
the screen.
While in the planet search routine the planet num-
ber is displayed at the bottom right corner of the
screen. Pressing the [ESC] key while in a planet
search causes the calculator to return to the Celes-
tial Bodies menu.

Press [ENTER] here to start the search through

the internal star and planet catalog to identify all
bodies within 5o of the observed data, First sun
and moon are checked (this is automatic) and then
through the stars starting from the brightest. Typi-
cal screens that pass by are shown below and then We find that Jupiter (a very bright body with mag-
it stops when it finds one that matches, Nunki in nitude  2.4) meets the search criteria precisely.
this case. Note that magnitude difference of  2.4 to  2.1
is 4.5 magnitudes or some factor of 100 in bright-
ness. (See ref. [21], The Star Finder Book).
Star and Planet ID uses the same internal function
used for the Sight Planner. That means that it also
reads the settings for Hc min and max in [S3][4].
If you have found a low or high star that is outside
of the range you have set, then you need to first
open up that range to find it. StarPilot will not
find a star at Hc 8o , when Hc min is set to, say,
The first shows star #20 which did not meet the
10o.
id criteria and then #50 which did. The output
shows #, name, magnitude, Hc, and Zn. Hc and The internal star search function searches for stars
Zn are both within 5o of the input data, which is in order of brightness. Bright stars matching the
38 StarPilot, LLC

search criteria will always be displayed before moon is full when the value of its phase is 1 and
dimmer stars. The “STAR SEARCH #.#” line dis- new when the phase is 0. The moon age indicates
plays the number of stars searched so far and the the exact day in the moon cycle. Day 1 indicates
number found. N is not the star number. This a new moon while day 14 indicates a full moon.
feature allows access to the more desirable stars
quickly without having to search the 173 star cat-
alog. The current star number, its name, and
brightness are displayed at the top of the screen.
[3]** Sight Reductions**
In the example screen for Procyon, the “...9”
StarPilot easily, accurately, and quickly reduces
means ...9.0 (no bodies found yet) but the TI sights for the Sun, Moon, five major planets, and
drops a zero decimal.
173 selected stars using its perpetual internal al-
The search routines always use the FAST Al- manac. This section describes procedures for do-
manac Mode. You can use the Precompute func- ing sight reductions using the internal almanac.
tion [2][4] if it is necessary to compute the alti-
To follow through the next examples, first Set
tudes and azimuths of a body with more precision.
Defaults [S4][2] so we start at the same place.
In particular, this will set the SR mode to Ver-
[2][6]Moon Rise, Set, Phase, Age ify ON so we we will be asked for all inputs on
each sight. Please review section [S2][5] which
The example computes the moonrise for February explains Sight Reduction Mode, Verify OFF vs.
2, 1998 at 12oN, 068oW. ON.

[3][1]Sun Sight Reduction

The procedure for doing celestial sight reductions

is best illustrated by an example. Suppose we
wish to reduce a Sun sight given the following
parameters.
GMT 15h 35m 42s
The first half of the output screen displays the
Date Sept 10, 1996
Watch Time (GMT  ZD) for rise and set of the
DR Latitude 34o 55 N
moon. (If the ZD had been set to, say,  5,
DR Longitude 35o 50 W
then the time reported here would have been
Hs 54o 58  8 for Lower limb Sun
“GMT  5” which is what we call “Watch Time.”)
HE 10 feet
Note that times greater than 24 correspond to
IC 2  5 (i.e. 2  5 OFF the scale)
events on the next day and should have 24 sub-
tracted from them. i.e. 27:58:27 means tomorrow Note that GMT Greenwich Mean Time, which
at 03:58:27. The second portion of the display in- is the traditional name for the modern term uni-
dicates the phase of the moon and it’s age. The versal coordinated time (UTC), which is the same
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 39

as what we call watch time (WT) with the zone Your data screens should look like a combination
description (ZD) and watch error (WE) set to 0. of the following.
Before doing the sample sun sight please turn on
the calculator and reset it to its factory default
state, see [S4][2]. Once the calculator has been
reset return to the main menu and select the Sight
Reduction menu entry [3]. The following screen
will be displayed.

Note the minus in the  35.5 representation of

35 50.0 West and the  1 for Lower Limb. IC is
used to enter the index error in decimal minutes.
The IC is simply added to the Altitude reading
(Hs) and therefore should have a minus (  ) for
“on” errors and no sign (i.e. implicit  ) for “off”
errors, i.e. “If it is on, take it off.”

Select Sun for a Sun sight. The program will then The output screen shows the body sighted, sight
inform you that you are performing sight number number, and then a review of the input, WT and
Hs, then the Azimuth Zn and the altitude inter-
one and then prompts you for the time of the sight.
cept, called here “Int” but usually abbreviated “a”
In StarPilot, all times are entered as Watch Times or the “a-value.” Here a 9.5 Towards 214  3o,
(WT), which are defined by this equation where the Azimuth Zn is always a true bearing.
Int(nm) is the intercept (a-value) in nautical miles,
GMT WT  WE  ZD positive values are TOWARDS, negative values
AWAY.

where the Watch Error in seconds and the Zone StarPilot records this sun sight for future use in
Description in hours are stored in the Settings 3 a LOP plot or Celestial Fix option [4], described
menu. The default has both 0, which makes later.
WT the same as GMT. If you detect an obvious error in the input, note
the sight number, then press [ENTER] and then
Now enter the data being careful to observe the
[5] to delete the sight so it can be re-entered. The
data entry conventions described in the Quick
delete process is discussed shortly in the section
Start section and Introduction. Press the [EN-
[3][5].
TER] key after each value is entered. Note that
hitting the [ENTER] key commits the value to
memory. Errors in data entry must be corrected [3][2]Star Sight Reduction
before the [ENTER] key is executed. A com-
bination or arrow keys, [DEL], [2nd][INS], and To reduce star sights, select Star from the Sight
[CLEAR] can be used to correct a value in error. Reduction menu. Sample:
40 StarPilot, LLC

Star Capella body number prompt will immediately appear

GMT 7h 11m 21s seeded with the body number for the selected star
Date May 2, 1988 (Capella).
DR LAT 49o 32 N, DR Lon 165o 12 W
If you know the body number for the star then
IC  3  0 , HE 16 ft
there is no need to display the star list. Enter the
Hs 36o 14
body number directly. Completing the data entry
then yields the following.

Above is the screen after the time, and date have

been entered. From this screen you enter the star The output is star number, name, and magnitude,
number or, as shown here, a 0 to show the list. followed by similar data as in the previous sun
Once again StarPilot informs you that it is now sight. The a-value 18  5 A 300  8o.
processing sight number 2 and queries for the WT
To prepare and evaluate star sights, StarPilot pro-
of sight and the date. StarPilot then prompts for
vides an easy method for identifying stars and
the body number of the sighted star. The body
planets and also a comprehensive Sight Planner.
number of the star is the numeric value assigned
See section [2][2] for details.
to each of the “named” stars in the Nautical Al-
manac. It is not necessary to know star number
for all the named stars. If you do not know the The Star Selector
number for the sighted star simply enter 0 and the
calculator will display a scrolling list of stars in The star selector is presented when doing sight
body number order. reductions of stars or directly from the Celestial
A full list of stars is displayed as well as a menu Utils menu.
at the top of the screen. Selecting [F1] or ALL All 173 stars are initially presented in Nautical
will display all 173 stars. Use the down arrow or
Almanac body order. F2 through F5 can be used
one of the the key sequences listed in the star se- to limit the list presenting only stars names that
lector section below to select the appropriate star. fall in the range in alphabetical order. The up and
Arrowing down to about 2 pages we learn that down arrows are used to scroll up and down the
Capella is #12 and it has a brightness magnitude list. [2nd] up or down arrow will scroll one screen


of 0.2. up/down.  up or down arrow will take you to
Once you have spotted your star in the list, the top/bottom of the list. Hitting [ENTER] will
hit the [ENTER] key on the calculator and the select the star and return the body number to the
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 41

calling function. [HOME] will take you to the Answer, a 12  4 A 079  9o.
top of the list [ESC] or [F6] can be used to exit
the function with out returning a value. [ON] will
kill the program.
The sight scroller has the ability to search while
scrolling the star list and the sight archive list
(they use the same scroll routine). While the list
is displayed and the calculator is in numeric mode
you can start entering numbers (i.e. such as the
body number for a specific star) and the scroller
will incrementally update the list as you add dig- [3][4]Planet Sight Reduction
its.
Select Planet for a planet sight reduction. Here is
The digits you have entered so far are displayed
an example.
at the bottom of the screen. If you hit the alpha
key (once for one character, twice for alpha lock) Planet Jupiter
then you can enter letters. The scroller will match GMT 21h 07m 26s, Date Sept 10, 1996
the star or archived sight with the matching name DR LAT 34o 30 N, Lon 36o 30 W
o
and update the scroller as you enter letters. Hit Hs 31 36  0
the alpha key again to go to numeric mode. The IC 0, HE 10 Feet
state of the calculator is displayed in the status
bar at the bottom of the screen. Alpha mode is
indicated by an “a” alpha lock mode is indicated
by a bold face “a”.

[3][3]Moon Sight Reduction

Moon, Lower Limb
GMT 10h 01m 04s
Date October 22, 1996
IC  1.7, HE 18 feet
DR Lat 26o 20 S, Lon 99o 27 E
o
Hs 33 39  3 Sight #3, a 4  2 A 171  3o. Note that although
Select [3] and enter the above data to start ana- these sights are numbered as we do them in this
lyzing the sample moon sight. The almanac com- series of examples, they are totally unrelated and
putation starts when you press [ENTER] follow- not part of any fix sequence. The “5” before
ing the year, and ends when it asks for Lat? For Jupiter is simply the number of the planet in
the moon, the longest computation, this can take StarPilot, which includes 6 planets. This num-
some 20 seconds. You will see the “busy cursor” ber is useful in judging progress in search routines
scrolling in the bottom right of the screen. such as Star/Planet ID and Sight Planner.
42 StarPilot, LLC

[3][5]Delete a Sight [3][6]Celestial Fix

In the last step of each sight reduction, you get This link takes you directly to the celestial fix
back a list of the input data used for the sight and page without having to go back to the Index. If
the output results. If there is clearly some error you were on the Index page, you would get to cel
in the sight input, then note the sight number and fix with the [4] key.
execute this option to immediately delete it. This
option [3][5] is set up for deleting a single sight
that you know the number of. You can delete the
last sight or any other numbered sight. When you
[4]**Celestial Fix**
delete a sight, the sequence is renumbered with
that one missing. StarPilot will record a series of sights over time
and given more than 2 will advance them to a
To delete sight number 5, for example, one would
common time and calculate a position fix which
execute the following sequence.
we call “celestial fix”. Alternately, the program
provides for a method of graphically displaying
the LOPs from various sights. The user then ma-
nipulates the arrow keys to select the coordinates
of the fix. Plotted LOPs can be advanced to a
common time or not advanced based on user in-
put.
Generally the first step in doing any fix would be
If you have been following through with the run- to review the sight data stored, which can be done
ning example, you will note that sight number 5 with option [1] of this screen. If you execute the
does not exist, therefore, StarPilot simply ignores function right now, however, you would see the
the request with a notice “Value out of range.” 4 sights from the last example, but it would not
Had the sight existed it would have been removed make sense at all to execute a fix from that data
from the list. If you start to delete a sight and since they were from different times, places, etc.
change your mind, just enter a large number and
Hence to show how celestial fixes work in StarPi-
that will get you out of it. Or press [2nd][QUIT].
lot, let us start all over again with a new set of
An alternative way to delete a sight is to Re- data.
view the list of all sights and when the one you
want is on the screen, press [DEL] key. This will
also renumber the set as before. With the delete- 3-Star Fix Example
during-review method, discussed next in section
[4][1], you do not need to know the sight num- On July 6, 1996 a vessel traveling at 20 knots on a
ber. From the Sight Reduction screen, the quick- heading of 325o True at approximately 32o N and
est way to get to the Review Sights option is go 15oW made the following 3 observations. The in-
to the Celestial Fix page where it is top item. See dex error was 0.0 and the height of eye was 10 ft.
next section. What is the expected position of the vessel at 2100
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 43

GMT determined from the following three sights?

The ZD of the watch was set to 0 (WT GMT)
and there was no watch error.

1. Regulus (#26)
WT 20h 39m 23s, Hs 25o 00  6 .

2. Antares (#42)
WT 20h 45m 47s, Hs 27o 05  7 .

3. Kochab (#40)
WT 21h 10m 34s, Hs 47o 27  6 .
Now enter the 3 star sight reductions as explained
Given that most of the parameters for these 3 earlier in section [3][2]. We will check your work
sights are the same, it would be most expedient in the next step. Here is what the data screens will
to use the StarPilot settings menu to set up the look like:
sight parameters before actually doing the sight
reductions and then use Sight Reduction Mode 1. Regulus
Verify OFF which will read the values for each
sight from the Settings. Refer to explanations in
earlier sections as needed to complete the follow-
ing sequence of instructions.

1. Reset the calculator to its defaults [S4][2]. In

practice this step is not necessary, you would 2. Antares
generally just use [4][6] New Sequence. We
do it here for a common basis for this prob-
lem.

2. Set the date in [S1][2].

3. Set the DR position in [S1][3] and set HE (Note “23” 23.0; this is quirk of the TI-
10 in [S2][3]. IC 0 will be set in the 89.)
defaults.
3. Kochab
4. Set SR Mode to OFF in [S2][5].

5. Check your input with View settings [S1][6]

and compare with the following.
44 StarPilot, LLC

[4][1]Review Sights On the other hand, if DR mode is set to “Speed,”

the Review Sights function will first use the inter-
The Review Sights function displays the full list nally stored values of course, speed, and DR po-
of sights stored in the calculator. This is a way to sition to advance each of the sights to a common
check that you have what you want before execut- time before presenting the a-values. The common
ing a fix, and it is also an alternate way to delete a time used is the time of the first sight and all inter-
specific sight Pressing the [DEL] key will remove cepts are computed and displayed relative to this
the displayed sight from the sight sequence and common time. This is a crucial option for evalu-
renumber the remaining ones. ating a set of sequential sights of the same body
from a moving vessel, but it has no significance
If you execute Review Sights now you should see in these three individual sights of different bod-
the 3 star sights you just entered. In the display, ies. Also note that this option has no influence on
“2/3” means the 2nd sight of a set of 3. the subsequent fix, since that will always require
course and speed adjustment.
DR mode Log acts like DR mode Off as re-
gards the Review Sights display. The log mode
only makes a difference in the DR Update opera-
tion.

–More– and the “Redo” Function.

SP-89 has expanded the sight array to include

DR Lat/Lon, HE, IC, body mag, plus other stuff.
The “more” function has a popup menu that ap-
pears if you hit a non-navigation key (i.e. any key
other than the arrows and enter). While review-
Note that although it will not affect the final fix ing sights it is possible to delete the current sight
in any manner, the actual a-values displayed in from the sight array by using the corresponding
the Review Sights list always depend on how the menu entry or the delete key([ ]).
DR Mode is set in option [S4][5]. The intercepts
displayed in this sequence are the same ones re- It is also possible to re-execute the displayed
ported at the time of the sight reductions, since sight, examine all the parameters that where orig-
DR mode is currently set to OFF. In other words, inally entered, make changes, and re-compute the
these a-values are not advanced. These particular sight reduction. The new result replaces the old
a-values do not know you actually had a course one in the sight array. This feature makes it very
and speed during the sights. When it comes time convenient to check for errors in old sights or sim-
to do a fix, however, you will be asked for the ply experiment with some of the parameters. It
course and speed so they will all be adjusted prop- is especially powerful when used in combination
erly. with the sight archive feature.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 45

To redo a sight simply do a review sights from position used in the running fix computation need
the celestial fix menu (or view settings) arrow to not be the same one used in the original sight re-
the sight you want to redo, hit any non-navigation ductions since all sights are re-computed for the
key (such as [5]), a menu will popup, select redo fix computation.
and off you go. Note that if you want to review all Note too, that if you are not moving (S 0) then
the parameters used for a specific sight you must the time of the fix does not matter. It just assumes
set “SR Mode” to “Verify ON” otherwise values you are at the same place but took sights at vari-
in the settings will be used as usual and you will ous times.
only be able to change WT, HS, and body (where
applicable). When doing sight reductions by tables we are
used to using Assumed Positions. With calcula-
tors, however, we do not have a separate Assumed
[4][2]Fix by Computation Position but instead all sights are reduced from
the stored or advanced DR position. When using
Once you have a set of sights stored in the calcula- the USNO method, if the DR Position is in error
tor, you can obtain a fix two ways, either by direct by more than 20 miles StarPilot will re-compute
computation [4][2] or by plotting the LOPs and your position after temporarily updating your DR
selecting the fix graphically yourself, discussed position. Once the running fix computation has
later under [4][4]. completed, answering “Yes” to the “Update DR
Position?” question will cause StarPilot to update
The Fix by Computation option uses the standard the stored DR position with your newly calculated
US Naval Observatory (USNO) algorithm found fix. The following screens depict a running fix
in the Nautical Almanac. This is a set of for- computation. Enter 0 (No) to the question on the
mulas and procedures that take the raw data and final screen for purposes of this example.
compute the corresponding fix. The lines of po-
sition are advanced to a common time and a least
squares fitting method is applied to compute the
fix.
When you select either option [2] or [4] from
within the Celestial Fix menu, StarPilot will
prompt you for your current speed in knots,
course track (magnetic if the variation is set, oth-
erwise true), and time (WT). The WT of the fix
you desire could be a time of one of the sights, or
any other time.
All sights will be advanced (or retarded) to the
fix time you entered. Entering a value of 0 for
the speed causes the application to suppress the Select 0 No, for now.
course and time prompts bypassing the advance The R(nm)/Brg(T) on the output screen are the
of the LOPs to a common time. Note that the DR range and bearing from the DR position to the
46 StarPilot, LLC

computed fix. This data should be recorded at this methods describe above. The program then ad-
stage since it is very valuable in evaluating your vances all LOPs to the given time and plots them
overall navigation and it will be replaced in the on the screen. In either case the DR position is
display in the next step if the R is bigger than 20 plotted in the center of the screen with a circle
miles. around it.
In summary, the 3 star sights gave a fix of
31o 37  2 N, 15o 01  6 W and this fix was a distance
of 22.8 miles off where we thought we were in the
direction of 183  5o True.
The full effect of “Update DR position” depends
on the DR Mode you are in, as explained further
in section [5]. When DR Mode Speed, “yes”
will update the stored DR position and the stored
The first display shows the DR position (a circle)
DR Time. When in Log mode, StarPilot will up-
about 23 miles north of the intersections as we
date the position and turn the Log mode to Off,
learned from the numerical fix (Section [4][2]).
since we lose track of actual log readings during
The automatic scale of the initial plot is about 3
the sights. If you wish, you can switch back to
times the distance from the DR position to the far-
Log mode at this point and re-enter the appropri-
thest LOP intersection. The Lat (Y) and Lon (X)
ate log reading
of the cursor position (a  sign) is displayed in
Please review the Quick Start Examples and dis- decimal degrees at the bottom of the screen. Next
cussion for more details. we use the arrow keys to move the cursor into the
“cocked hat” of intersections, as shown below.

[4][3]Fix by Plotting LOPs

Alternately, to use a graphic method to obtain a

fix, use the Fix by Plotting option under the Ce-
lestial Fix menu. Fix by Plotting will graphically
display the LOPS on the screen allowing the user
to actually select the fix from the plot.
When first executed, the plotting function Then press [ENTER] to read the precise Lat/Lon
prompts the user for the vessel’s speed in knots of the cursor position.
that was in effect during the sights. Entering 0
for the speed will cause the calculator to immedi-
ately plot the LOPs without advancing them to a
common time. Entering a non-zero value for the
speed causes StarPilot to prompt for the course (in
True or Magnetic [S4][4]) and a WT ([S3][5]) in
exactly the same manner as the computational fix
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 47

Entering 1 for the replot question will quickly re- [4][4]The Sight Archiver
display the same plot to allow for another cursor
selection if desired. An answer No (0) will ask if SP-89 includes a facility for storing and managing
you want to update the DR. Yes to this will sim- groups of sights along with their corresponding
ply take the position you selected and store it in settings in the TI-89’s ROM memory.
the DR position. Yes or No to this will lead to The Sight Archiver is accessed from the “Celes-
the next question of Rescale, which is a redraw of tial Fix” menu under the heading “Sight Archive”.
the same plot increased or decreased in scale by When initially invoked, the sight archiver presents
a factor you choose. Here we ask for it to be re- on the screen a lists of archived sights and a tool-
drawn a factor of 5 larger. Note too that when we bar menu. The arrow keys are used to scroll up
updated the DR that will move the center of the and down the list of sights and the menu items are
plot to the fix position we selected. used to invoke an action on the highlighted entry.
Pushing F1 creates a new entry. The StarPilot
First prompts for the filename to store the cur-
rent sight array in. Push the [alpha] key twice to
put the calculator in alphabetic mode. Now push
the keys on the calculator that correspond to let-
ters. i.e. ([5] the letter ’A’). Hitting the [alpha]
key again places the calculator in numeric mode.
The state of the calculator is displayed at the bot-
tom of the screen in the status bar. StarPilot then
presents an editor so that a textual comment of up
to a maximum of 256 characters can be entered.
The normal TI editing keys such as [CLEAR],
Here we have moved the cursor to the right to co- [2nd][ ], [ ], etc. can be used while editing the
incide more with the choice made by the USNO comment. Please refer to your TI-89 manual
computation. This latter is more the true centroid for more information on entering text. Once the
of the pattern, i.e. the point that is about 1  0  in- comment has been completed hitting [ESC] will
side of each of the LOPs. Note the DR to cursor cause SP-89 to store the current settings and the
distance is 0.87 nm in direction 057o. sight array under the entered filename in ROM.
The newly created sight is then displayed on the
You can more directly compare USNO to the Plot screen. Figure 6 shows the creation of a sight
by updating DR to the USNO fix when you do it, archive variable named “abcd” sporting a com-
then do the plot, expanding as needed. Again, we ment “sample sight” using the sight archiving
do not enter the “  ” sign, and when using reduc- function.
tions use the (  ) key next to the [ENTER] key.
Note that the first 10 character of the comment
Also note that scale of 5 and then scale of 5 is
that was entered is displayed along side the newly
the same, it does not build on the existing one but
recomputes the LOPS fresh each time using the created file name.
factor you provide. Following is a description of the sight archiver
48 StarPilot, LLC

sights to the PC use the TI-Connect DeviceEx-

Figure 6: Creation of a archive using the sight
plorer function as described in detail in the Ap-
archiver function.
pendix.

[4][5]Delete a Sight

This is the same function described in the Sight

Reduction section [3][5]. It is for removing one
sight at a time according to its number. Remem-
ber that the sight numbers change when one is
deleted. An alternative way to delete a sight is to
Review Sights [4][1] and press[DEL] key to re-
move the one in view.

key bindings: [4][6]New Sequence (Del All)

F1 creates a new archive. If you wish to remove all stored sights but oth-
erwise leave all the settings unchanged, then use
F2 copies the selected sight back into the calcu- this New Sequence Option. This is the more com-
lators working sight array and settings. mon way to move on to a new set of sights un-
derway. On the other hand, if you have a lot of
F3 change an existing comment or add one to the
changes to make, then the Set Defaults [S4][2]
selected file.
might be a better option.
F4 or [ENTER] display the content of the se-
lected file.
F5 or [ESC] return to the “Celestial Fix” menu. [5]Updating DR Position
F6 rename the selected sight file. It is often useful to determine a DR position from
F7 [BS], or [DEL] delete the selected file. log book data without actually plotting out the
track on a chart or plotting sheet. This func-
F8 erase all the archived sights. tionality is provided in StarPilot by the Update
DR function. Considerable effort has been taken
[2nd][ ] pages up or down through the list. to make this a convenient and versatile function

[ ][ ] moves to the top or bottom of the list. since it is so crucial to the day’s work in ocean
navigation.
SP-89 stores the sight archive in a folder on The operational behavior of Update DR as well as
the calculator called SPSITE. To upload archived how this interacts with the Celestial Fix routines
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 49

is controlled by two settings: DR Mode [S4][5] OFF make sure that you entered a valid DR po-
and Course/Speed in [S1][5]. sition in the settings before you start and validate
When DR Mode OFF, the Update DR function the Update DR results before storing them back
will ask for your course and then the distance run into the settings.
in nautical miles. Then it computes your new DR If you choose to use SR Verify Mode ON then
position. If you did not have a DR position stored the StarPilot will prompt you for the DR posi-
in the Settings, then it will first ask for the starting tion each time you call the Update DR function.
point. At the end of the computation it will ask if This is not as inconvenient as it sounds since the
you wish to update the stored DR position to this DR value stored in the settings is used as a de-
new value. fault value for the Lat/Lon prompt. In practice
Example, we are at 47o 39 N, 126o 50 W. Our all you need to do is verify that the Lat/Lon being
log reads 100.0. We wish to find our new posi- prompted for is using the correct default value and
tion if we sail 123.7 miles on course 245oT, We then simply hit [ENTER].
do this first in the Off mode, then Log and Speed The following examples and discussion assume
modes. From main Index, do [1][3] to get to the that SR Mode is set to Verify OFF. You can work
DR Lat/Lon input and type in 47.39 and  126.50. the problems in either Verify ON or OFF noting
You can also get there from the custom menu by that the screen output will contain additional in-
pressing any of the function keys followed by [F2] formation when the SR Verify is ON.
to select the Util 1 menu and arrowing down to
DR() and hitting [ENTER]. If once you enter the DR Mode OFF
DR function from the custom menu you make a
data entry error or you decide you want to exit Now set DR mode Off from setting [S4][5].
with out modifying the DR, simply hit [ESC]. Then from Main Index press [5] to Update DR
[ESC] will get you back to the StarPilot menu you and then input the course and distance run. Hit-
were using before you called the DR function. If ting the [ENTER] key then gives:
you quit before entering any data, the old values
remain. If in doubt, do view settings [S1][6]. If
need be, set magnetic variation to 0 [S4][4] so that
course headings are entered as true.

SR Mode and Update DR

Update DR will work in either SR mode Ver-

ify ON or Verify OFF (See [S2][5]). In SR Verify
Entering a 1 here for “yes” will store this new po-
Mode OFF StarPilot will simply use the DR
sition into the DR, 0 will just quit. Select 0 since
position recorded in the settings with out prompt-
we want to do other examples.
ing for verification. This is very convenient when
entering a DR track since the amount of data en- (If you select 1 instead, it will update the position,
tered is greatly reduced. If using SR Verify Mode then ask if you want to change C and S. If you say
50 StarPilot, LLC

yes to this, it will first ask for DR mode, since you this position will replace the one in storage and
are now in Off which does not need these.) also the log in storage will go from 100.0 to 223.7.
To carry on with these examples, choose Yes by
The output shows the new DR position as well as
pressing the [1] key, then say [0] for no course
a summary of the leg we just computed. This is a
changes for now.
double check that we entered the right values, but
this latter info would be of more interest in the
speed mode. Note that these values reported back DR Mode Speed
may differ by a few tenths or so, since this is not
just a repeat of what we entered, but an actual in-
First do View Settings to confirm what we have so
dependent second computation of the Rhumbline
far. Do this from [S1][6] or from the custom menu
route from departure point to answer point and
[HOME][F2][ENTER]. You should have the new
there may be some rounding off errors.
DR position stored along with a log reading of
223.7 and a course of 245.
DR Mode Log To start doing DR by speed and time, change DR
mode to Speed, enter DR time 12.04, Course
Now set DR mode Log from [S4][5]. StarPilot 245, Speed 8.5.
will then prompt for Log (enter 100) and Course
(enter 245). In this mode, to figure our position Now let us ask where we will be at DR time
123.7 miles along from here, we have to realize 1445. From main Index, do Update DR, and enter
that our log will then read 223.7 – or if we were 14.45, and you should get:
not using real log entries, we could just enter 0
here for our current log reading, and then enter
123.7 for the computation, which is like doing it
in Off mode.

Reminder:
To use the calculator for simple adding
and subtracting in the middle of navi-
gation routines, just do [F5][F5] to en-
ter calculator mode, then do the math Again, the bottom part of the display is the RL
you want, then [ESC] to get back to (rhumbline distance) from departure to destina-
StarPilot. tion. It should be very nearly the same as the
timed run of the input, i.e. 14.45  12.04 2h
41m at 8.5 kts 22.8 miles, see [HOME][F2][4]
Now execute Update DR from the main Index and
(The Time Speed Distance function under pilot-
learn that all you need to enter is the log reading
ing Section [6][1]).
of interest, i.e. 223.7, to get the new DR posi-
tion. You will get the same screen as in the Off Updating DR position will now store this new
mode. If you say “Yes” here, i.e. key [1], then location along with the new DR time of 14.45.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 51

Do this and then view settings to check what you vance the sights before displaying them. The
have. common time used is the time of the first sight
Here is a logbook Sample A, to be computed. (#1). Hence for most logical presentation of the
data, it is best to have the stored DR position con-
Log Course Position sistent with the DR track in effect at the time of
102 245o 47.39, -126.50 the sights. To do that, just set the DR mode to
150 260o Speed (set it again, even if it is set there now) and
178 270o at the input enter any valid time and point on the
190 170o DR track. If you care to, you could then do Up-
255 170o find position date DR to the time of the first sight to double
Using Update DR in Log mode, you should get check with your printed records that all is correct,
46.098,  128.359 although if your input was correct this would not
be needed. The program will automatically up-
Likewise, this one, Sample B (unrelated to A). . . date the DR before presenting each sight.
WT Course Speed Position
Normally this is not a concern, since when the fix
12.04 245o 8.5 47.39, -126.50 is computed it will be done right no matter where
15.12 260o 7.0 the DR is – it might just take a few iterations to
18.06 270o 7.5 converge. But things will work more smoothly
19.00 170o 6.0 and make more sense if you use for a DR position
19.50 170o 6.0 find position the one that corresponds to the sight time you re-
Using Update DR in Speed mode, you should get quested. Needless to say you need to do it this
47.193,  128.038 way if you wish to test your GPS with celestial or
vice versa.

Note on DR Over Midnight

The Update DR function in Speed mode does [6]**Utilities**

not read the date stored in the calculator (date is
for cel nav functions only). When you must DR
In addition to the celestial navigation aids already
across midnight in the Speed and time mode, take
examined, StarPilot also provides a host of use-
one leg up to 24.00, then start another at 00.00
ful general purpose navigational functions. Ac-
by setting DR Mode again in [S4][5]. In the Log
cess to these functions is via a series of cascading
mode this is not an issue. Note that you can do
menus starting with the Utilities menu. Functions
running fixes that span midnight in any time zone,
are loosely categorized and placed in a menu with
since the date is stored with all sight reductions.
other similar utilities. For example, the Route
Sailings menu contains functions which cover the
DR Mode and Review-Sights Display various ways to compute routes from point to
point. All StarPilot utilities and their correspond-
When DR Mode Speed, the Review Sights ing menus are listed in Figure 7. See also the
function [4][1] uses the course and speed to ad- menu map on the back cover.
52 StarPilot, LLC

tions. Suppose you run a measured mile in 8m

Figure 7: StarPilot utility functions
32s. What was your speed?

The answer is 7.03 kts.

[6][2]True Wind Direction

Sailors and power-driven vessels as well often

need to know the true wind speed and direction
although only the apparent data are available. Use
Utilities 2 to get to the converter.
[6][1]Speed, Time, Distance

Speed - time - distance computations are needed

daily in marine navigation. StarPilot has a conve-
nient routine for this. Get to it under Utilities 1
or from [CUSTOM][F2][1]. When executed the
procedure prompts for the three values. Enter 0
(zero) for the one that you wish to compute. How
long does it take to go 112.8 miles at 14.5 kts?

Given a ship course of 115o (true or magnetic, it

does not matter, the output is all relative to the in-
put) traveling at 6.5 knots, with an apparent wind
direction of 145o (i.e. from 30o on the starboard
bow), and apparent wind speed 16 knots we cal-
culate a true wind direction and speed as follows.
Note that the actual direction of the apparent wind
is required, not just a relative direction.
Answer is 7h 46m 46s. This is a very con- The above example was in terms of actual wind
venient function with numerous routine applica- direction. If you prefer to use relative values, then
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 53

set course 000, and all input and output will

then be relative values. You will get that an ap-
parent wind of 16 kt at 30o on the bow when trav-
eling at 6.5 kts is the result of a true wind of 10.9
kts at 47  4o on the bow. The faster you go, the
more you push the wind forward.

[6][3]**Route Sailings** For comparison, the Great Circle results are also
displayed for each RL computation. These latter
Functions in this category are used to compute data represent the shortest distance, but the short-
routes from a start position to the destination. est route is a curved track on a Mercator chart.
These functions use the stored DR position and The GC course presented here is just the initial
Dest position if they have been set in the Set- heading on the great circle route.
tings menus. Use option [5] to see what is stored
in these positions, and then option [6] to change In this example, the straight line course on head-
them as needed. ing 267  8o True will take you there in 4752.3
miles, whereas the actual shortest route will be
a curved one, starting off at a higher course of
302  6oT but eventually being a lower course than
the RL heading. The GC course is shorter by
263.5 miles, but the actual heading of the course
will vary throughout the passage. The Great Cir-
cle sailing option below takes the curved GC
route and breaks it up into a series of straight RL
segments.

[6][3][1]Rhumbline
[6][3][2]Great Circle Sailing
The Rhumbline (RL) function computes the
straight line course to the destination on a Mer-
cator chart and the corresponding distance. The The Great Circle function computes the great cir-
course shown will be the one true course that will cle distance between two points and the course
take you from departure to destination on a con- heading to a series of way points, determined by
stant heading, assuming no current, no leeway, a user input Lon interval (5o is typical), on the
nor any other errors. great circle route to the destination.
Consider the course between San Francisco, The following sequence computes the great circle
at 37o 50  8 N, 122o 25  5 W and Yokohama at route between San Francisco, CA at 37o 50  8 N,
34o 52 N, 139o 42 E. Use [6] and [5] to input and 122o 25  5 W and Yokohama, Japan at 34o 52 N,
check the results, shown below. 139o 42 E.
54 StarPilot, LLC

we compute the following single equivalent

course made good (CMG) and distance.

[6][3][4]Composite Sailing
and so on until the destination point is reached.
Notice that the Lon has gone up 5o each step, Composite sailing is a hybrid of the great circle
and you are told the corresponding Lat if you are function discussed above. When the great circle
to plot this route on a Mercator chart. In each course between two points carries a vessel to a lat-
screen you are given the distance left to travel (in itude higher than desired, then composite sailing
nautical miles) and the initial course of that leg, may be used to good advantage. The composite
which would generally be treated as the Rhum- track consist of a great circle course from the de-
bline course to the next GC waypoint. parture point to the limiting latitude, followed by
a course line along the limiting parallel and then
a second great circle course to the destination.
[6][3][3]Traverse Sailing
Consider the great circle example explored pre-
viously in this manual. To compute the com-
The traverse sailing function finds the single posite track between California at 34o 50  8 N,
equivalent course given by a series of headings 122o 25  5 W and Japan at 34o 52 N, 139o 42 E
and distances (CD) or waypoints (Wpt) such as with a maximum limiting latitude of 45o N we
might result from a sailing vessel beating and would execute this function with the following
tacking its way to a windward point. When first parameters.
called the routine will prompt for the format of the
data to be entered. Enter a 1 to select CD (course
and distance) or 0 to select Wpt. We use CD mode
in the following example.
Given, for example, the following course head-
ings and distances,
Course(T) Distance(nm)
158o 15  5 First we compute a great circle course up to lati-
135o 33  7 tude 45o N.
259o 16  1
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 55

[6][4]**Current Sailings**

The Current Sailings menu provides access to a

series of functions for solving typical vector prob-
lems encountered when planning around currents.
The menu is accessed via the Utilities menu and
includes the functions in the following subsec-
Arriving at the limiting latitude we then follow tions.
the meridian to the designated parallel. The great
Note that all current sailings functions override
circle course is then followed to the destination.
the mag variation – all input and output are la-
beled True. We do this since current set data
are usually given in True, so if you are work-
ing in magnetic for other headings you will need
to first convert any magnetic headings to True to
use these functions. Likewise, convert any output
here to Magnetic if needed. Current set is always
the true direction toward which the current flows,
drift is always in knots. We use this convention to
remind you that all input must be consistent, and
the output will then match. You can, of course,
use all magnetic inputs and then will get magnetic
[6][3][5]Compute Magnetic Variation outputs, but the labels will still be “T”.

Use this function to compute the local magnetic

variation for any location on Earth at sea level for [6][4][1]Course/Speed Made Good through a
the current epoch. Note that westerly variations Current
are displayed as a negative number. The model
used by StarPilot to model the Earth’s magnetic The CMG and SMG function computes the
field is only valid for 5 years. Computations for course made good and speed made good when
dates outside the current 5 year epoch will result the course steered and speed through the water
in warning message. are given. The current set and drift must also be
known.

Given that the course steered is 080o T, the speed

[6][3][6]Set DR Params. . .
through the water is 10 knots, the set is towards
140oT, and the drift is 2 knots, the solution for the
Takes you back to the settings menu so you can course made good (CMG) and speed made good
change DR or Destination as needed for a route (SMG) would be as follows.
computation.
56 StarPilot, LLC

[6][4][3]Course to Steer at Given Speed to

Achieve a CMG

Function CTS and SMG computes the course to

steer and speed made good when the course to
make good and speed through the water are given.
Additionally, the set and drift must also be known.
Given the course to make good is 095oT, the
[6][4][2]Course and Speed to Steer to Achieve speed to maintain through the water is 12 knots,
a CMG and SMG the current set is towards 170o T, and the current
drift is 2.5, the course to steer (CTS) and the
The CTS and SPEED function computes the True speed made good (SMG) would be the following.
course to steer and the knotmeter speed required
when the course to make good and speed to make
good are given, and the set and drift of the current
are known.
This type of problem is encountered when the ar-
rival time is crucial after a passage through cur-
rent. You know the CMG (where you are to where
you want to go) and you know the distance there,
and you know the time interval you have to cover
it so you can figure the required SMG to get there
[6][4][4]Find Current from GPS
on time. Knowing that, what course do I steer and
how fast should I go? Note that the answer may
not always be achievable with your vessel. Input your SOG and COG from the GPS and also
your knotmeter speed and course steered, and this
Given that the course to make good is 265o, the function computes the set and drift of the current
speed to make good is 15 knots, the set and drift of which would account for any difference between
the current are 185oT and 3 knots respectively, we these two.
compute the course to steer (CTS) and knotmeter
speed in following sequence.

We are sailing course 200o T at a knotmeter speed

of 7.5 kts, the GPS tells us we are making good
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 57

course 220oT at a speed of 6.0. The current we

are in is 2.77 kts flowing toward 332  2oT.
Note, you should not use instantaneous values for
the input, but rather watch the GPS, compass, and
knotmeter outputs for some time to be sure you
have realistic average values for the input. (You
can input True or Compass headings, providing Note that the computed tide height is displayed
both inputs are the same, and then the set will be using the same units as the input low and high
in those units as well. tide. If the tide heights were to be entered in me-
ters, for example, then the result would also be
[6][4][5]Tidal Current Interpolator displayed in meters.
Note also that both the Tidal Current Interpolator
The Current Interp function is used to find the ve- and the Tide Height Interpolator offer the option
locity of a tidal stream given the time of slack and to compute multiple values from the same input.
maximum tide and the maximum velocity of the
tide. For example, to find the tidal velocity at 3h
30m given a slack water at 1h 42m and a peak [6][5]**Celestial Utilities**
current flow at 4h 43m with a drift of 4.6 knots
one would execute the following.

The functions found in this grouping compute

miscellaneous tasks based on celestial sightings.
All the functions are controlled by settings en-
tered in the Settings Menus such as Date and DR
[6][4][6]Tide Height Interpolator Lat/Lon.

The tide Interp mode computes the height of tide

at any selected time given the time height of low [6][5][1]Meridian Passage of the Sun for both
and high tide. To compute the height of the tide at Lat and Lon
7h 35m given that the time and height of low tide
is 1h 45m at 0.6 feet and the time and height of Measure the peak height of the sun at noon and
high tide is 9h 06m at 11.9 feet one executes the note the GMT of the event. The height will give
following sequence. your latitude, the time will determine your longi-
tude. For example, Hs max for lower limb sun
58 StarPilot, LLC

viewed to the south on Mar 4, 2000 at 20h 55m using the pole star Polaris. Suppose vessel at DR
30s was 35o 15  2 . IC 2  0 On, HE 9 ft. The position 12o N, 65o W observes Polaris with an al-
following sequence yields the position of the ob- titude of 12o 30 at 2200 GMT on January 1, 1998
server to be 48o 31  0 N, 130o 59  2 W. Note that from an observation height of 10 feet with no in-
since the Sun is observed to the “South” a nega- dex error. The vessel’s latitude, actual azimuth
tive (  ) value is used to represent the altitude of for Polaris, and intercept can be obtained using
the Sun. Sun sightings towards North are positive. the following sequence.

This function reads the settings, so if non-zero to

begin with, you must go in and set them prop- This routine would also be used to determine the
erly. Also note that although accurate peak sex- azimuth of Polaris for compass or gyro calibra-
tant height is relatively easy to obtain underway, tion or for any surveying application that needed
accurate time of the peak is not. Much care must precise bearing reference.
be taken to determine this value accurately from
a series of sights. In general, a simple running fix Note that LOPs based on Polaris can also be
from two sets of sunlines is a more reliable ap- obtained using standard sight reduction proce-
proach to finding position from the sun. dures such as the one described in the “Celestial
Sight Reduction” sections of this manual (Section
To best use this function, take a series of sights [3][2]).
spanning LAN as shown in the Sight analyzer sec-
tion [4][3], then analyze them that way to get the
best values of Hs max and time of LAN. If that [6][5][3]GMT by Lunar Distance
curve and the fit looks good, then chances are this
is a reasonable fix. Note that with such a large set
The Lunar Distance Method for determining time
of data you might also try just computing a fix for
comparison. Also compare the plot of all these (often called “Lunars”) was developed during the
LOPs, zoomed in to the fix position. mid 1700s to synchronize inaccurate chronome-
ters enabling the determination of Longitude. The
method presented here can be used to set time to
[6][5][2]Polaris Sights for Latitude and Az- within 1 minute of accuracy – sometimes rather
imuth better. Although, not as accurate as using a short
wave radio tuned to WWV, it is included in the
The Lat by Polaris function provides for an al- event that some accident prevents the setting of
ternate method of obtaining an observer’s latitude time by more conventional methods.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 59

Time may be determined by measuring the an-

Figure 8: Example of GMT by Lunars
gle between the Moon and any of the 179 bod-
ies in the almanac (Sun, 5 planets, and 173 stars).
Time can be set most accurately when measuring
the Lunar-Solar distance (or angle) and decreases
with accuracy for lunar-planetary distances and it
is at it’s worst when measuring angles between
the moon and stars. The faster the ground move-
ment of the celestial bodies, the better the time
accuracy.
When measuring Lunar-solar distances, 1  of arc
error in the reading of the angle yields about 3
minutes of error in time. It is, therefore, cru-
cial that all lunar distances be measured as ac-
curately as possible. Unfortunately, Lunar-solar
angles can only be measured about 7-10 days a actual measurement. In this example, the ship’s
month. If the Lunar-solar distance cannot be mea- chronometer is found to be 5 min 51 sec fast.
sured then the navigator can measure angles be-
tween the moon and one of the 5 visible planets
or a bright star on the ecliptic.
With IC 0, and HE 10 ft., to compute the cor-
rect GMT using the outer rim of the sun and the
moon’s inner rim with an angle of 62o 41  8 on
June 19, 1998 at 12o 46 N, 70o 22 W at approxi-
mately 11h 54m 05s GMT, one would execute the
sequence in Figure 8. The inner rim of the moon
The output shows the corrected watch time, watch
corresponds to the rim closest to the body used in
error, lunar distance corrected for semi-diameters,
the measurement. A body’s outer rim is the rim
calculated distance, slope of the distance vs. time
farthest away from the moon. After entering the
curve expressed in time seconds per lunar dis-
time, date, position, StarPilot then prompts for the
tance arc minutes (i.e. in this example, the lunar
body against which the moon is measured and in-
distance was changing at a rate 1  per 189 sec-
ner/outer rims used in the measurement.
onds), and finally we show the change in mea-
While completing the lengthy time computation, sured distance that would have accounted for the
StarPilot displays a scrolling bar indicator and an observed time difference – which shows how sen-
estimated angle between the two selected bodies. sitive the answer is to accurate input data. Note
The computation completes when the bar reaches that accurate Lunars are computed using an iter-
the right side of the screen. The approximate an- ative method the discussion of which is beyond
gle may be used for sight planning allowing the the scope of this manual. For references on moon
navigator to preset his sextant angle prior to the sights for time and an iterative solution to Lunars,
60 StarPilot, LLC

see www.starpath.com in the celestial nav and the bearing of the Sun’s shadow with the actual
StarPilot sections. reading yields the compass deviation for the cur-
rent heading. The adjustments can then be made
to remove the deviation, or the deviation may be
[6][5][4]List Stars noted on a card. To swing a compass, or to create
a compass deviation card, follow the given pro-
This function simply displays a list of the star cedure while traveling along each of the cardinal
number, name, and average magnitude. The or- and intercardinal compass headings.
der presented is as numbered in the Nautical Al-
manac for the first 57 which are called the “navi- The following example (Figure 9) illustrates the
gational stars.” The remaining stars are presented execution of the compass calibration procedure
in order of SHA, starting with 360o and working for a vessel at 35o 15 N, 70o 25 W, on June 3,
down. When a specific range is selected, such as 1975 at 1330 GMT, with a local magnetic varia-
A-F, this order remains the same, but only stars tion of 7o 15 W. By convention, westerly mag-
beginning with these letters are presented. . . the netic variations are entered as negative numbers
list is not in alphabetic order. Note that although (Section [S4][4]). The (d.m) in the local mag var
Polaris is a named star it has not been assigned a prompt is a reminder to enter this value in de-
body number in the Nautical Almanac. StarPilot grees.minute format. Note that as in most func-
arbitrarily assigns Polaris a body number of 58. tions in this menu group, the program will not
Use of the Star List is shown in the star sight re- prompt for either the DR LAT/LON and/or the
duction example, section [3][2]. local magnetic variation if they have been previ-
ously set in the “Settings” menu (Section [S1][3]
and [S4][4]).
[6][5][5]Sight Reductions Using External Al-
manac Data
Figure 9: Compass Calibration Example
This function is explained on the StarPilot CD or
you can download it from www.starpath.com

[6][5][6]Compass Calibration

An accurate way to check a compass is to com-

pare the compass heading of the vessel with the
shadow of the sun cast across the compass. This If your compass pin shadow is at, say, 280o , then
procedure can be used at the dock or far out of your compass is too low on that heading by 1  6o .
sight of land.
You can use the precompute function to do this as
The celestial utility called Compass Cal predicts well, but there is more arithmetic. You will find
where the Sun’s shadow should fall on the com- that the Zn of the sun is 094  3oT and the recipro-
pass given the GMT of observation, a DR posi- cal at 274  5oT which is 281  6oM accounting for
tion and the local magnetic variation. Subtracting the variation of 7  25o . The bearing to any body
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 61

can be used for a compass check using the pre-

compute function. Use PC mode Normal for
this, not Fast, since generally one does want ac-
curacy to the tenth of a degree for compass cali-
bration.

[6][6]Piloting In line 1, “other” means user inputs the distance

to travel, next is speed made good (SMG), then
The “Piloting” menu consists of miscellaneous the destination ZD (not shown above). The an-
routines used to help in piloting a vessel. ETA swer would be 0559 Dec, 31. The option 1
is also included in this section. GC, means you then input DR and destination po-
sitions and StarPilot will automatically compute
the Great Circle distance and use it for the com-
putation.

[6][6][2]Distance Off by Vertical Sextant Angle

The sextant is a powerful piloting tool for deter-

mining distance off a landmark whose height is
known. This can be used for distances that are
tens of miles off, on down to less than a mile off.
It can also be used to find distance off of objects
[6][6][1]ETA whose height is not known, provided they are
fairly close and viewed from a higher eye height.
Computes Estimated Time of Arrival in destina-
tion time zone using either computed great cir-
cle distance or an input distance. It can account
for a fixed delay along the way called Bunk T
(bunkering). Example (from a USCG exam):
leave Capetown at 0530 (ZD  1) on Dec 20,

1981 bound for New York at ZD  5, estimated

SMG 25 kts, distance 6762 miles. What
is arrival time with no delays underway? Note
that this function will read stored ZD, date, DR The three conditions illustrated in Figure 10. The
and Destination positions if non-zero. Setting 4- required input are: IC, HE (they will be prompted
2 clears all if desired, in which case all required for at each sight regardless of SR mode which ap-
inputs will be prompted for. Otherwise check set- plies only to sight reductions) and sextant angle.
tings (1-6) to confirm what is stored. Method 3 does not require an HE as it assumes
you see the base from where ever you are.
62 StarPilot, LLC

Figure 10: Distance off by sextant methods.

Here are typical examples for IC 2  0 (off the are themselves not available very often. All 3
scale), and HE 30 feet. methods lend themselves well to testing by radar
or GPS so that when these electronic aids are not
Case 1a (base hidden, over the horizon), moun- available we can fall back on the trusty sextant.
tain height 3520 ft, Hs 1o 34 , answer
19.9 nm.
Case 1b Mountain height 3520 ft, Hs 0o 25 , [6][6][3]Distance Off by Two Bearings
answer 47.35 nm – a very clear day.
Case 2 (base showing, distinctly closer than
horizon). Sextant height base to horizon Figure 11: Distance off from by two bearings.
12 . Answer 0.88 nm, at HE 30 ft.
Note that at HE 9 ft, the answer 0.3 nm;
and at HE 80 ft, answer 2.0 nm. As
an aside, this function is one way to investi-
gate how far off a shoreline has to be to be
useful for an index error check. It can also
sometimes be used to determine how far off
a vessel is.
Case 3 (base to top), hill height 460 ft, Hs
2o 30 , answer 1.7 nm. This is the most
common use of this technique for close in
piloting, whereas method 1 is more common
for coastal runs and for judging larger dis- The function computes distance off at the sec-
tance off at first landfall. ond bearing and the distance you will pass abeam
based on two bearings and a distance run between
Case 2 is not a common technique as it re- them (see Figure 11). The procedure assumes a
quires higher precision in measurements which constant course. Bearings are bow bearings, equal
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 63

to the difference between actual bearing and ves- You can also get to this function from the custom
sel heading. menu with [CUSTOM][F3][4].
For example, given an initial angle on the bow
to an object is 18o (A1) and after a distance run [6][6][5]Add Angles This function provides a
of 1.7 nautical miles the angle to the same ob- simple way to add and subtract angles. In addition
ject is 45o (A2), then you must now be 1.2 miles to the sum, the average value is also printed. In
off the object, and if you carry on on this same the following example we do:
course, it will pass 0.8 miles off at closest point
when abeam.
120o 43  0  5o58  4  10o 3  5 116o 37  9

This is a versatile piloting technique. For charted

objects it gives a position fix, but it can also be You can also get to this function from the custom
used without reference to a chart. menu with [CUSTOM][F3][5].

[6][6][4]Add Times [6][6][6]Geographical Range

This function provides a simple way to add or Geographical range is needed to predict the visi-
subtract times in h.ms format. The average value ble range of a light or land given the height of the
is also printed. The example below is: object above the waterline. The function prompts
for height of eye and height of the object. It then
computes the geographical range. The follow-
12h 4m 12s  32m  1h 0m 4s 12h 32m 16s
ing example predicts the geo range of a light 125
ft high when observed from an eye height of 10
Just enter 0 when you want to stop the entry se- feet above sea level. The answer is 16.35 nautical
quence. miles.
64 StarPilot, LLC

The geographic range is the distance off at which might be used in an emergency as a way of finding
the object first appears or disappears over the time from a known position.
horizon viewed from a specific height of eye. The
visible range of a navigation light will be the Compass calibration, Lat by LAN, and Lat and
smaller of its geographic range and its luminous Azimuth of Polaris use High mode.
range. Luminous range depends on the prevailing
Users do have the option of Normal vs. High in
atmospheric visibility and can be read from ta-
the Precompute function. For sun and stars this
bles in the Light List. It is the same as the charted
will make little difference in time or precision,
nominal range in clear weather.
but for moon and planets the time savings is sig-
nificant. Hence if you are precomputing for just
planning or identification or data analysis (i.e. cal-
Appendix 1 - Almanac Precision culating the slope of a set of data for example),
Specs then Normal would be adequate and faster, but if
you want high-precision results, then use the High
mode. This choice is made with the PC Mode
StarPilot uses internally 3 levels of precision [S2][6]. Again, the choice made here affects only
when doing almanac computations, Fast, Normal, the Precompute function, all other functions have
and High. These variations are present to expedite internally fixed almanac precision modes.
the various auxiliary functions. For moon sights
used purely for planning purposes, for example, NOTES to Table 1.
we can save minutes of computation time for a All precision modes are acceptable for the com-
modest sacrifice in accuracy, when this accuracy putation of positions at sea with the possible
is not needed. exception of those listed with “low” precision.
Modes listed as “low” may cause errors to inter-
All sight reductions, on the other hand, are per-
cept of up to several miles. Medium precision al-
formed automatically with the highest precision
gorithms result in errors to intercept of less than
in the High Mode. There are no user options on
0.5 miles. Numeric values for maximum errors
this setting for sight reductions.
in precision are in seconds of arc. Please refer to
The accuracy specifications for the various modes the references listed in the bibliography for fur-
are shown in the Table 1. High mode matches the ther discussions on the accuracy of the methods
precision of the Nautical Almanac, although spe- used.
cific comparisons might differ by a tenth or two
since that is the limit of the Nautical Almanac’s
stated precision, which is discussed in that publi- A. Keplerian orbit using planetary elements for eclip-
cation. tic circa 1990. Accuracy is approximately 10   of
arc and increasing in error as one departs in time
We use Fast mode for Sight Planner, Star/Planet from the epoch. (Ref: [9])
ID, and for moonrise and moonset. These are
planning functions that do not require precision B. Keplerian orbits using planetary elements for eclip-
to the tenth. For sunrise/sunset, however, we use tic of date. Corrections for nutation and aberra-
the High Precision mode for this function since it tion are also included. (Ref: [7, 9]).
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 65

Table 1: Summary of Almanac Precision modes used in StarPilot

body Fast Normal High
Sun Good-Med[A] 10  [B] 2  [B]
Moon Low[A] Low[N] 10  [D]
Mer, Ven, Mar Med[E] Good[F] 10   [D]
Jup, Sat Med, Low[H] Good,Low[I] 10   [J]
173 Stars 10  [L] 2  [M] 2  [M]

C. Planetary programs are used to analytically com- Appendix 2 - Capturing Screens

pute positions. Corrections for nutation and aber-
ration are also included. (Ref: [10, 9])
All the screen captures in this Guide were cap-
D. ELP-2000/82 Lunar theory is used in addition to tured using TI-Connect. You may want to capture
corrections for nutation and aberration. (Ref: [7, your own for records of fixes, fits or other rea-
9]) sons, to paste into a log book or email to a friend.
The Get Screen function is also a quick way to
E. Keplerian orbits are computed using planetary ele-
test that the Link between calculator and PC has
ments for ecliptic of date. (Ref: [9])
been made. Here is the procedure:
F. As in B with corrections for planetary aberration.
(Ref: [7, 9])
1. Connect StarPilot to your PC with Link ca-
H. As in E with additional corrections for Saturn and ble and start TI-Connect program with TI-89
Jupiter. (Ref: [9]) turned on.

I. As in F with additional corrections for Saturn and 2. Set up StarPilot to show on the screen what
Jupiter. (Ref: [7, 9]) you want to capture.
J. Planetary tables are used for the period 1960-2100
AD. For years not in the stated period VSOP 87 3. Click “Screen Capture” Icon.
planetary theory is used. Corrections for nutation
and aberration are also included. (Ref: [10, 7, 9]) 4. After it shows the screen, click “Clipboard”
and that copies the image to your Windows
L. Star positions for the ecliptic of 1975 are trans- clipboard. You can also choose to have the
formed to the positions relative to the ecliptic of clipboard image be larger or smaller than
date. (Ref: [3, 9]) shown. Alternately, you can save the image
to a file for later viewing.
M. As in L with additional corrections for nutation and
aberration. (Ref: [3, 9])
5. Then paste the image into your favorite
N. As in A with corrections for nutation and aberra- graphics program or even a page in MS
tion. (Ref: [3, 9]) Word, or an e-mail document.
66 StarPilot, LLC

Appendix 3 - Transferring Data That is all there is to it. Next page we show the
reverse process for putting them back into the cal-
to/from a PC culator. Note that copying the data from calcula-
tor to PC does not alter the data in the calculator.
This is a powerful feature of StarPilot that lets you To test this procedure, load the calculator with a
save data from one sight session to a PC and then set of sights, archive t them, then move them to
later reload it into the calculator for more analy- a PC and then do “Set Defaults”, and delete the
sis or plotting. It would be a good way to archive archive. Check that you have no sights and all is
the full set of sights from a long passage. If you zeros or default values, then reload the sights to
have not done so already, you must install the TI- see that they are now all back in and your calcu-
Connect software provided by Texas Instruments lator is in precisely the state you exported.
at no charge. TI-Connect can be downloaded di-
rectly over the Internet by connecting to educa- Procedure, PC to StarPilot:
tion.ti.com or it may be installed from the CD that This is exactly the same as when you load StarPi-
accompanies your TI Link Cable. lot into your TI-89 in the first place, if you did
that.
Procedure, StarPilot to PC:
Follow the previous procedure but instead drag
1. Connect your calculator to the computer and the sight archive from Window Explorer to TI De-
run the TI-Connect program. vice Explorer. Note that if a sight archive with the
same name as the one you are trying to copy into
2. On the StarPilot archive the sight you wish to the calculator exists you will need to remove it
transfer using the “Sight Archive” function using the delete function in the “Sight Archive”
in the “Celestial Fix” menu. menu prior to doing the copy.
3. On the calculator exit the StarPilot applica-
tion by pushing the “ON” button.
4. Click the “Device Explorer” icon in the TI- Appendix 4 - Installation Notes
Connect program.
5. Double click on the “spsite” folder and then This section is not needed if you purchased the
again on the “Application Variable”. You StarPilot-89 preloaded directly from StarPilot.
should now see a listing of all your archived Hardware and OS
sights. StarPilot89/92+/V200 will run on any Ti-89, Ti-
92 Plus, or TI Voyage 200 calculator running the
6. Push on the “Explorer (Folder) Icon” in the
latest version of TI’s AMS 2.08 calculator soft-
TI-Connect tool bar to run Windows Ex-
ware. To determine the software version number
plorer and browse your computer for a loca-
hit the [F1] key followed by the down arrow to
tion in which to store your archived sights.
select "A:About" and hit enter to display a dia-
7. Drag the archived sight from the TI- log with the hardware version number and AMS
DeviceExplorer window to the Windows Ex- version number. Calculators running older AMS
plorer folder you have selected in step 6. version can upgrade to the latest 2.08 version for
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide 67

free by following the download installation in- Connect icon. This will download the StarPilot
structions found at the education.ti.com web program files directly onto the 89/92+.
site.
From another TI Calculator connect the two
Installing AMS 2.05 calculators together using the TI calc to calc
Install AMS 2.05 or greater if it is not already cable that came with your calculator. On the
running on your calculator. Download AMS 2.08 receiving calc execute [2nd][VAR-LINK] to enter
from the TI web site at education.ti.com and the var-link menu. Now press the [F3] to enter
follow the installation instructions on the down- the link menu and arrow down to 2:Receive and
load page. hit [ENTER].
Unarchive StarPilot
Windows users unarchive the appropriate StarPi- On the sending calc enter the var-link menu
lot build by double clicking on the Sp-89.exe, Sp- by executing [2nd][VAR-LINK]. Now press [F5]
92+.exe, or Sp-V200.exe found on the StarPilot and hit [ENTER] to select all the files on the calc.
CD or downloaded from the www.starpath.com Depress the [F3] key followed by [ENTER] to
web site. The self-extracting program will copy start transferring the files to a TI-89, TI-92 Plus,
StarPilot to the C:\MyTiData\Backups directory or TI-V200.
where TI- Connect will look for it in the next Initializing StarPilot
step described below. Mac users will need to use To initialize StarPilot select [2nd][VAR-LINK]
stuffit or some other unarchiving program to ex- and arrow down to “spsetup” and hit [ENTER].
tract the content of the StarPilot distribution im-
age. Finish the command by typing “)”. You should
now see “spsetup()” at the bottom of the screen.
Installing StarPilot Now hit [ENTER] to execute the StarPilot initial-
To download StarPilot 89/92+/V200 make sure ization program.
the calculator is on and securely plugged into the
computer. Then follow the appropriate procedure The first time spsetup() runs on a stock calcu-
below. lator the program will display a dialog prompt-
ing the user to patch the operating system. Sim-
Windows users install and configure the TI-
ply hit enter when the dialog appears. The
Connect 1.1 program for windows. This program
StarPilot init program should then unarchive the
is available for free download from education.
ROMed backup version of the software, display
ti.com. From the TI-Connect main window click
the StarPilot logo, the version screen, and then
on Restore. Select the StarPilot89/92+/V200
prompt for an initialization key. Entering a bo-
download image (sp23082.89g for example) and
gus key or [ESC] or [ON] will get you back to
follow the prompts.
the home screen. Entering a valid key will exe-
MacIntosh users install and configure the TI- cute StarPilot’s “index” menu. Note that on the
Connect program for the Mac. This program 89/92+ the key is good for the life of the unit.
is available for free download from education. Each 89/92+ has a unique serial number. StarPi-
ti.com. Once the program is installed drag lot uses this unique number when generating the
the StarPilot89/p92+/V200 image onto the TI- code. You might want to consider writing the
68 StarPilot, LLC

code on a sticker on the inside cover of the cal- of the following files and directories or Folders:
culator.
MAIN/ SPARC/ SPSITE/
Spsetup needs to be executed only once. To *kbdprgm1 *sparc1 *stars
invoke StarPilot under normal conditions sim- *spinit *sparc2 *burch
ply hit [F1][ENTER] under the custom menu. *spsetup .. ..
. .
The custom menu is selected for you automat- *spunist
ically every time you run StarPilot. Normally SPII / - is not included in the distribution but
you need only hit [ENTER] to re-execute StarPi- contains over 400 files stored in RAM for per-
lot. If normal math calculations are executed formance reasons and is created by unarchiving
then [F1][ENTER] needs to be executed to run SPARC with spsetup().
StarPilot. If advanced calculator features are
used and the Custom menu is deselected then The distribution is viewable from the TI-89’s
[2nd][HOME][F1][ENTER] needs to be executed [2nd][VAR-LINK] menu. A “*” next to a name
to get back to StarPilot. [2nd][HOME] is equiv- indicates that the file is stored in the archive ROM
alent to [CUSTOM] on the 86. Once StarPilot is memory.
running the custom menu can be accessed easily Spsetup is the StarPilot Initialization program.
by pressing any of the function keys i.e. [F1].


Spunist is the StarPilot uninstall program. Exe-
Alternately  1 will invoke the index menu re- cute this and all StarPilot files are removed from
gardless of the mode the calculator is in. the calculator.
Uninstalling StarPilot Files found in the SPARC folder are the archived
To uninstall all or some portion of the StarPi- ROMed version of the StarPilot. When spsetup is
lot execute spuninst() from the [2nd][VAR-LINK] executed for the very first time, it uses these files
menu. Spuninst() will first verify that you indeed to extract an operational version of the StarPilot
want to remove the software from the calculator. that it stores in the SPII folder in RAM.
Answering yes to the uninstall question will then
cause the program to proceed with the uninstall. The SPSITE folder contains archived sights.
Next spuninst() will ask the user if all archived StarPilot is shipped with a few samples. Newly
sights should be removed from the calculator. An- archived sights are stored in this directory. Use
swering no will leave the sights untouched. Fi- the sight archive utility to create, view, delete, and
nally the program asks if the ROMed archive of restore these sights.
the program should be installed. Answering no Since the base distribution and the archived sights
to the final question will remove all RAM com- are stored in ROM you can erase RAM at any
ponents of the program but leave the ROM im- time with [2nd][MEM][F1][  ][ENTER] (or use
ages for later re-installation of the StarPilot with- the Spunist() program). This will erase all RAM
out having to download the images from a com- memory freeing resources for other applications.
puter. Execute spsetup() to re-install and run the Running spsetup() will restore and execute the
StarPilot. StarPilot application. Spsetup() will prompt you
Of ROM, RAM, and Things for a key. Simply enter the key that was assigned
The StarPilot on calculator distribution consists to you by StarPilot with the original purchase.
 StarPilot-89 User’s Guide - 10th July 2003 69

Bibliography

[1] Nautical Almanac, US Naval Observatory, [11] Planetary Programs and Tables from  4000
Washington DC, 1978, 1981, 1988, 1991, to  2800, Pierre Bretagnon and Jean-Louis
1996. Simon, Willman-Bell, Inc., 1986.

[2] Almanac for Computers, US Naval Obser- [12] Celestial Navigation in the Computer Age,
vatory, Washington DC, 1985. Alton B. Moody, Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company, 1982.
[3] Astronomical Almanac, US Naval Observa-
tory, Washington DC, 1975. [13] Navigation Afloat, Alton B. Moody, Van
Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1980.
[4] Astronavigation Now it’s Child’s Play, Mike
Harris, Practical Boat Owner, No 258, pg. [14] Piloting/Navigation with the Pocket Calcu-
58, 1988. lator, Jack Buchanek and Ed Bergin, Tab
Books, 1976.
[5] Which Star?, John Jeffrey, Practical Boat
Owner, No 273, pg. 145, 1989. [15] Coastwise Navigation, Stafford Campbell,
[6] Practical Ephemeris Calculations, Oliver Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1979.
Montenbruck, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg,
[16] Advancing Celestial Circles of Position,
1989.
Thomas R. Metcalf, Navigation: Journal of
[7] Astronomy on the Personal Computer, the Institute of Navigation, Vol. 38, No 3
Oliver Montenbruck, Springer-Verlag Hei- 1991.
delberg, 1989.
[17] Manual for the Tamaya NC-77 Digital Nav-
[8] Astronomical Algorithms, Jean Meeus, igation Computer, Tamaya Technics, Inc.,
Willman-Bell, Inc., 1991. Tokyo, Japan, 1978.

[9] Astronomical Formulae for Calculators, [18] Starpath Home Study Course on Celestial
Willman-Bell, Inc., 1988. Navigation, David Burch, Starpath Corp,
Seattle, 2001.
[10] Practical Astronomy with Your Calculator,
Peter Duffett-Smith, Cambridge University [19] Emergency Navigation, David Burch,
Press, 1988. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986.
70 StarPilot, LLC

[20] American Practical Navigator, NIMA Pub

9, N. Bowditch, et al, GPO, 1995. The
CD ROM version is called Bowditch Plus!,
Starpath Corporation, Seattle, 2001.
[21] The Star Finder Book, David Burch,
Starpath Corporation, Seattle, 2001.
[22] Self-Contained Celestial Navigation with
H.O. 208, John S. Letcher, Jr., Interna-
tional Marine Publishing Company, Cam-
dem, Maine, 1977.
[23] Lunar Tables and Programs from 4000 B.C.
to A.D. 8000, Michelle Chapront-Touzé and
Jean Chapront, Willmann-Bell, Inc., 1991.
[24] 100 Problems in Celestial Navigation,
Leonard Gray, Celestair, Inc. and Paradise
Cay Yacht Sales, 1992
[25] Tables for Clearing the Lunar Distance
and Finding G.M.T. by Sextant Observation,
Bruce Stark, Lant-horn Press, 1997. Avail-
able from www.starpath.com.
[26] Inland and Coastal Navigation a Home
Study Course, David Burch, Starpath Corp,
Seattle, 2002.
 MENU MAP

Setting ............................................ location

Course/Speed ............................. [S1] [5] Max sight # ................................... [S3] [6]
Date ................................................ [S1] [2] PC Mode ........................................ [S2] [6]
Defaults ......................................... [S4] [2] Set Defaults .................................. [S4] [2]
Dest Lat/Lon ................................ [S1] [4] Speed/Course .............................. [S1] [5]
Dip Mode ...................................... [S3] [3] SR Mode ........................................ [S2] [5]
DR Lat/Lon .................................... [S1] [3] Support Info ................................ [S4] [6]
DR Mode ........................................ [S4] [5] Temp/Press .................................. [S3] [2]
Eye Height (HE) ............................ [S2] [3] Units ............................................... [S4] [3]
Hc min/max/#cutoff .................. [S3] [4] UT offset (ZD/WE) ..................... [S3] [5]
Height of Eye (HE) ....................... [S2] [3] View Settings ............................... [S1] [6]
Index Corr (IC) ............................... [S2] [2] Watch Error................................... [S3] [5]
Limb ................................................. [S2] [4] Zone Description ........................ [S3] [5]
Mag Variation ............................... [S4] [4] Setting ............................................ location