Celestial Navigation Problem Set

Sean Ken M. Galanza

IOAA 2023 and 2024, Philippines

See the last page for the list of useful formulas. There are a total of 55 problem tasks arranged in
increasing difficulty. The first 25 tasks are designed to be warm-up exercises.. Relay all concerns about this
paper through the following email: seangalanza2005@[Link]

1. During the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice, the sun has a declination of 23.5 degrees north. In the north
pole, what is the sun’s altitude during the June summer solstice?
2. What is the range of latitudes at which the sun can be circumpolar in a day?
3. What is the declination range of the stars that never rise in Quezon City, Philippines? (ϕ = 14.5o N ; L = 121o E)
4. Is it possible for a star to be circumpolar if it passes through the zenith?
5. Consider a place with a latitude of 20 degrees south. Calculate the shortest and longest possible length of a meter
stick’s shadow cast by the sun at noon.
6. A star passes through the local meridian near north at an altitude of 75 degrees and crosses the same meridian near
south at an altitude of 45 degrees. Find the latitude of the observer and declination of the star. Also, determine
what latitudes can this star be circumpolar at least once in a year.
7. Let A and B be distinct points on the earth’s surface along the 60o N parallel circle. The right ascension of A is 8h
and that of point B is 12h. Given that the radius of the earth is 6378km, calculate the distance along the surface
between points A and B.
8. A certain region has a latitude of (ϕ = 30o N ) and longitude of (L = 105o E). Estimate the local time of sunset in
this area during the summer solstice. How about the sunset civil time?
9. Azimuth is the angle measured from the north clockwise. A hypothetical celestial object has an azimuth of 150
degrees, and the difference between the right ascensions of the local meridian and the object’s meridian is 7 hours,
which is usually denoted as the hour angle. Calculate its right ascension if the observer’s local sidereal time is 19
hours.
10. What must be the declination of the star and the latitude of observation if its azimuth must not change for at least
half a day?
11. Why can we see all the stars throughout the year at the equator?
12. A celestial object culminates due north at a zenithal distance of 15 degrees. Half a sidereal day later, its altitude
becomes 55 degrees. Calculate the latitude of the observer and the declination of the star.
′
13. The star Bellatrix has approximate equatorial coordinates δB = 6o 20 N and αB = 05h25m while Mintaka is located
almost on the equator with a right ascension of 05h32m. Determine the approximate angular distance between
Bellatrix and Mintaka to the nearest degree.
14. The sun is about to rise, and you observe the zodiac constellation Scorpius directly above you. Estimate the month
of observation.
15. Let’s say that you live in a giant mansion located in Vancouver, Canada (ϕ = 49.25o N , L = 123.12o W ) that has a
rectangular window directly facing the north. Because you hardly adapt to the cold climate, you decided to adjust
the height and vertical length of the window such that throughout the year, the sun rays directly hit your couch,
which is 2.00m away from the base of the window, every noontime. What should be the minimum height of the
window’s bottom edge and its vertical length to achieve this?

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16. The height of the Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, is 829.8m. Imagine yourself standing on its
rooftop and assume that your height is negligible compared to that of the building. During the equinox, estimate
the local time of sunset on the rooftop. (ϕBurj = 25.19o N )

17. IOAA 2023 was held in Chorzow, Poland (50.3058o N , 18.9742o E), and IOAA 2024 was held in Vassouras, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil (22.35o S, 43.598o W ). An observer from Vassouras sees the moon situated directly above them on
the sky. Is the moon visible in Chorzów at that time? What is the zenithal distance of the moon at Chorzów?
′
18. What are the ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) of the star α - Lyra (δ = 38o 47 01” N , 18h36m56s)?

19. Estimate the right ascension and declination of the mean sun on November 11.

20. An observer’s current local sidereal time is 18.6h the moment he sees a star on the zenith. 5 hours later, he sees
the star at an altitude of 33.48o above the horizon. Determine the declination of the star. You are given that one
sidereal day is 23h56m4s long and sidereal time ranges from 0h to 24h that repeats at an interval of one sidereal
day.

21. How long is a sunset in the north pole? Assume that the Earth’s orbit is perfectly circular and that the angular
diameter of the sun is 0.5o .

22. The maximum equation of time of the sun is approximately 2e radians. Express this value in units of minutes. (e
= 0.0167)

23. In the next 12,000 years, Vega would be the north star. If we were to make a new coordinate system where Vega
is on the north celestial pole, what would be the declination of Polaris by then? The current coordinates of Vega
are (38o 47′ 01”N , 18h36m56s).

24. You are riding on a jet that is 3 kilometers above the ground in an attempt to perform a free fall stunt during
the vernal equinox on the equator, and the sun at this time is almost set below the horizon. All of a sudden, you
jumped of the jet and deployed the parachute that would give you a terminal velocity of 5 m/s. By the time you
reach the ground, the sun just completely set below the horizon. Calculate the zenithal distance of the sun before
you dive from the jet. Assume that the angular diameter of the sun is 0.5 degrees. Use g = 10 m/s2

25. (IOAA 2009 T5) The Damavand Mountain is located at the North part of Iran, in south coast of Caspian Sea.
′ ′
Consider an observer standing on the Damavand mountaintop (latitude = 35o 57 N ; longitude = 52o 6 E; altitude =
5.6 × 103 m from the mean sea level) and looking at the sky over the Caspian Sea. What is the minimum declination
for a star, to be seen marginally circumpolar for this observer. Surface level of the Caspian Sea is approximately
equal to the mean sea level.

26. Magnetic Declination: When one uses a compass to point out the north cardinal direction, the reading might
not be the accurate true north at all. The north pointed by a compass can be slightly deviated from the actual
azimuth of the true north, as the Earth’s magnetic pole does not exactly coincide with its geographic pole. This
discrepancy is what we call as the magnetic declination, which is the azimuthal difference between the magnetic
north (the north direction that can be read from the compass) and the true north. This has been investigated by
students of IOAA 2024 held in Vassouras, Brazil (ϕ = 22.404o S, 43.663o W ) on August 19, 2024 during the group
competition round. For this problem, we will do exactly the same using hypothetical data that could have been
ideally collected by the students during IOAA 2024. (The data here are fabricated to get the actual answer. The
author decided not to use their group’s collected data because they used a wrong method during the competition,
lol)

(a) The students were able to use a compass to determine the sun’s azimuth. Upon reading from the compass, they
should have measured the sun’s azimuth to be around 16 degrees east of the magnetic north. Additionally,
when students use a 10cm pencil to cast the sun’s shadow, they could have measured the shadow length to be
around 8.3cm. Estimate the magnetic declination at Vassouras. You may assume that the ecliptic longitude
of the sun does not vary in a day.
(b) What should be the true azimuth of the sun that time?

27. (OWAO 2023 T7) On a rocky planet in a circular orbit around a star, equatorial and ecliptic coordinates are
arranged in the same way as on the Earth. The local ecliptic passes through points with equatorial coordinates
(α1 = 20.4o , δ1 = 22.5o ) and (α2 = 74.7o , δ2 = 49.0o ). Calculate the fraction of the planet’s surface where polar
nights can occur. Neglect the atmosphere.

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28. (IOAA 2008 T3) A full moon occurred on June 19, 2008 at 00h30m West Indonesian Time (local civil time for
western part of Indonesia with reference geographic longitude as 105o E). Calculate the extreme possible durations
′ ′
of the Moon above the horizon for observers at Bosscha Observatory (longitude: 107o 35 00” E, latitude: 6o 49 0” S,
Elevation: 1300.0m, Time zone = UT +7h 30m).

29. Estimate the local time of the figure below, which is in the year 2024. Try utilizing as much info from Figure 0.0.1
or from the given data. (longitude: 43.6o W , Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time: 6h40m36s of January 1, 2024 at 0:00
Local Time, right ascension of α-Lyrae: 18h37m47s). The Polaris has an altitude of 20 degrees.

Figure 0.0.1: This is an image with inverted colors so that the bright spots appear as dark spots. For instance, the black
dots are the stars, and the size of the dots correlates with the brightness. Hint: What is the name of the bright star
along the local meridian? What is its hour angle?

30. Prove equation 25, given by:

tan α⊙ = cos ϵ tan λ⊙

using equations 32 and 33.

31. (SA0 2021 Round 2 T3.4f ) On a Cartesian grid, with the Equator set as the x-axis and the Prime Meridian set
as the y-axis, find the equation of the terminator line 1 on 21 December 2021, when it is local noon in Singapore.
Singapore has a longitude of 103.82o E. In this question, you can treat the Sun as a point source. Refer to Figure
0.0.2

Figure 0.0.2: Terminator Line on a Mercator Projection (Unlikke what was shown in this figure, which was shown in the
actual SAO paper, the ’day time’ and ’night time’ on the figure should be swapped because the daytimes are longer in
the south during December.)

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32. Castaway: Being so excited for IOAA 2025, you eagerly packed your things and started traveling to India via
boat alone. Out of too much excitement, unfortunately, you accidentally dropped your navigational equipment
somewhere in the Indian Ocean on June 19. Despite this, you got stranded on the North Sentinel island and
decided to rest there for a bit to be friends with the natives. (You don’t know what island it is.) Luckily, your
communication equipment is still with you, and you decided to call for help from the Philippine authorities back
in Quezon City (14.5o N , 121.05o E). You have no information about the island’s geographical coordinates, but you
manually measured that the star Polaris is 11 degrees above your horizon and the sun sets at 19:53, as shown from
your watch set for Philippine civil time (UT + 8). To start the rescue operation, the authorities ask if you know
your geographical longitude. What is your longitude and latitude?

33. Squid Game: Out of desperate need for energy to accomplish this problem set, you spent a lot of money on coffee,
making you immensely broke. So, you decided to join the Squid Game in South Korea on June 8, 2025. During the
first game called ’Red Light, Green Light”, you noticed that the game venue doesn’t have a roof, allowing you to
catch a glimpse of the sun. This made you think that perhaps you can determine the geographical coordinates of
the Squid Game island. Luckily, you brought yourself a vernier caliper, a random 50-cm wooden stick, and a printed
table of constants, which the guards didn’t manage to confiscate. Before the start of the game, you measured the
length of the stick’s shadow to be 12.60cm and noted the point directly below the sun along the horizon. Then,
exactly 12 minutes later, you survived the game, and you measured that the shadow length remains 12.60cm long!
You then noted the point along the horizon below the sun again and noticed that the points before and after the
game are 9.5o apart, as measured by your hand. Also, this may not be in the actual show, but let’s assume that
the venue shows the universal time (greenwich time), which reads 3:41 am. This helps the squid game’s VIPs to
take note of their international timezones.

(a) Determine the geographical coordinates of the island if your table of constants indicates that the time of
vernal equinox during the year 2025 is on March 20, 9:00 am (UT), whose Greenwich sidereal mean time is
20h53m36s. Also, you may ignore the solar equation of time.
(b) Fortunately, you won 38 million US dollars after winning the Squid Games. You were transported back to
the coast of Ssangmun-dong (ϕ = 37.6o N , 127.019o E). Given your knowledge of the island’s geographical
coordinates, you then plan to use all the money you earned to stop the games by riding a boat towards the
island. At what angular direction (azimuth) should you point your boat to reach the island? Assume that you
can travel the shortest path and that there are no obstacles along it.

34. (IOAA 2024 Th T7) After surviving a shipwreck and reaching a small island in the southern hemisphere, a sailor
had to estimate the island’s latitude using the sun. However, due to poor euesight, teh sialor couldn’t see the night
stars very well, so his best option was to reply on the Sun. He had no information about the date, but he realized
the days were longer than the nights. The sailor noticed that on his first day on the island, the angle between the
positions of sunrise and sunset on the horizon was 120 degrees. With this piece of information,

(a) determine the range of possible values for the latitude of the island. Neglect the daily motion of the Sun across
the ecliptic.
(b) The angle between the positions of sunrise and sunset kept increasing daily. After 40 days, this angle was equal
to 163 degrees. Estimate the latitude of the island. You may neglect the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit.

35. Consider a hypothetical scenario when an asteroid occults Jupiter, which happens to be roughly on superior con-
junction, on December 21, 2025. After a couple of minutes, it occults Aldebaran (δ = 16.5o N , α = 4.6h).

(a) Determine the inclination (0o < i < 90o ) of its orbit relative to the equatorial plane
(b) How about relative to the ecliptic plane? (i > 90o )
(c) As seen from Quezon City (ϕ = 14.5o N ), what would be the asteroid’s minimum zenithal distance?

36. An airplane took off from a place with geographic coordinates 50o N and 60o E with a bearing at exactly due west.
It’s destination is located at 41.35o N and 30o W . Assume that this happens during the vernal equinox.

(a) Solve for the latitude of the airplane when it reaches the prime meridian.
(b) Once the airplane reaches the prime meridian, the center of the sun’s disc reaches the horizon, but instead
of it progressing with its setting below the horizon, it remains static on the horizon due to the motion of
the airplane. If the airplane is cruising at a constant ground speed at an altitude of 10km above the ground,
calculate the minimum possible speed of the airplane.

37. For the next two tasks, you may ignore the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit.

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(a) Obtain an expression for the rate of change of the sun’s hour angle H⊙ at the horizon as a function of δ⊙ , δ˙⊙ ,
H⊙ , and ϕ (the latitude).
(b) Similarly, obtain an expression for the rate of change of the sun’s hour angle, but this time, the expression
must be in terms of dλ ⊙
dt , the angular speed of the mean sun along the ecliptic, ϵ, the inclination of the ecliptic
with respect to the equatorial plane, and δ⊙ .

38. (IOAA 2017 T12) You are shipwrecked on an island. Fortunately, you are still wearing a watch that is set to
Bangkok time, and you also have a compass, an atlas and a calculator. You are initially unconscious, but wake up
to find it has recently become dark. Unfortunately, it is cloudy. An hour or so later you see Orion through a gap
in the clouds. You estimate that the star “Rigel” is about 52.5o above the horizon, and with your compass you
find that it has an astronomical azimuth of 109o . Your watch says it is currently 01:00 on the 21st November 2017.
You happen to remember from your astronomy class that Greenwich Sidereal Time (GST) at 00h UT 1st January,
′
2017 is about 6h 43min and that the R.A. and Dec of Rigel are 5h 15min and 8o 11 , respectively. Bangkok is in
the UT+7 time zone.

(a) Find the Local Hour Angle (LHA) of Rigel

(b) Find the current Greenwich sidereal time (GST).
(c) Find the longitude of the island.
(d) Find, to the nearest arcminute, the latitude of the island.

39. The Winter Hexagon is a significant astronomical asterism composed of six prominently bright stars: Rigel (β - Ori),
Aldebaran (α - Tau), Capella (α - Aur), Pollux (β - Gem), Procyon (α - CMi), and Sirius (α - CMa). An ’interior
spherical triangle’ is formed inside the hexagon by the three vertices of the intersection of the three great circles
formed by connecting three pairs of stars, shown by Figure 0.0.3 as a shaded region. What is the probability that
the zenith of an observer on the Earth’s surface coincides within the spherical triangle at a particular time? Assume
that an observer can stand everywhere on a perfectly spherical Earth. See the figure caption for the equatorial
coordinates of the stars.

Figure 0.0.3: Capella: (46.0o , 5.28h), Aldebaran: (16.5o , 4.6h), Rigel: (−8.2o , 5.2h), Sirius: (−16.7o , 6.8h), Procyon:
(5.2o , 7.7h), Pollux: (28o , 7.8h)

40. Sunset time: Estimate the time of sunset at Chorzów, Poland (ϕ = 50.3o N ) in August 12, 2023. Consider the
non-constant ecliptic longitude of the sun throughout the day. Also, you are given that the time of vernal equinox
in 2023 is March 20, UT 21:24.

41. Geosynchronous Satellite: A geosynchronous satellite orbits the Earth every one sidereal day. It’s orbit is
inclined by an angle 0o < i < 90o relative to the equatorial plane, and it has an eccentricity of e = 0.04. As shown in
Figure 0.0.4, the path of the satellite on the sky as viewed from the equator throughout the day traces an eight-like
figure, similar to the solar analemma. Additionally, the perihelion of the orbit is situated at the southernmost
declination. Throughout this problem, consider the satellite as a point source.

(a) By measuring from the figure, estimate the orbit’s inclination relative to the equator.
(b) Determine the satellite’s angle from the perihelion at which the equation of time (longitudinal difference
between the mean and true path) is maximized (represented by the blue line on the figure). Do not estimate
the declination of the blue line by directly measuring it from the figure. Instead, the students should numerically
solve for it.
(c) By performing measurements on the graph, estimate the declination of the intersection point between the
upper loop and the lower loop.

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(d) Let T be the orbital period of the satellite and T’ be the period the satellite spends traveling along the upper
loop. If T and T’ can be related as T = kT ′ , estimate the numerical value of k up to three significant figures.
(Hint: Use Kepler’s second law)
(e) Determine the maximum equation of time. You may use the following integral property:
√
ˆ 2 tan−1 ( √1−a ) · tan x


dx 1+a 2 a sin x
= − +C
(1 + a cos x)2 (1 − a2 )3/2 (1 − a2 )(1+ a cos x)
where C is some constant determined by evaluating a definite integral or by establishing some initial conditions.

Figure 0.0.4: Black line: equator; blue line: max E.T.; the graph was scaled such that each grid measures 10 degrees

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Formula Bank
sin β = cos ϵ sin δ − cos δ sin ϵ sin α . (21)
LST = H + α (1)

sin δ = cos ϵ sin β + cos β sin ϵ sin λ . (22)

o
hu = 90 − |ϕ − δ| (2)

sin δ⊙ = sin ϵ sin λ⊙ (23)

hl = |ϕ + δ| − 90o (3)
n
λ= · 360o (24)
hl − hu + 180 365.242
ϕ= (4)
2
tan α⊙ = cos ϵ tan λ⊙ . (25)
hu + hl
δ= (5)
2 cos a cos B + sin B cot C
cos c = (26)
sin a
o
δ >= 90 − ϕ (6)
cos H cos δ = cos A cos h sin ϕ + sin h cos ϕ . (27)
|δ| > |ϕ| − 90o (7)
sin H cos δ = sin A cos h , (28)

cos a = cos b cos c + sin b sin c cos A (8)

cos A cos h = cos H cos δ sin ϕ − sin δ cos ϕ . (29)

sin A sin B sin C

= = (9)
sin a sin b sin c sin A cos h = sin H cos δ . (30)

sin B = tan c tan a (10) sin λ cos β = sin δ sin ϵ + cos δ cos ϵ sin α , (31)

sin B = cos b cos C (11) cos λ cos β = cos δ cos α , (32)

A = ER2 (12) sin α cos δ = − sin β sin ϵ + cos β cos ϵ sin λ , (33)

sin h = sin δ sin ϕ + cos δ cos ϕ cos H (13) cos α cos δ = cos λ cos β , (34)

sin δ = sin h sin ϕ + cos h cos ϕ cos A (14)

r
∆δ 2 ∆α
u= ( ) +( cos δ)2 . (35)
∆t ∆t
cos H⊙ = − tan δ⊙ tan ϕ . (15)
E.T = STtrue − STmean . (36)

H
t(hr) = · 24hr . (16)
360o

LSTobserver = Hobject + αobject . (17)

LST = H⊙ + α⊙ = Hobject + αobject (18)

LT = H⊙,hours + 12h . (19)

R⊕
cos Θ = (20)
R⊕ + x