How to Use celestial navigation in a Sentence

celestial navigation

noun
  • There are even birds and seals that use celestial navigation, but in the insect world, this finding is a first.
    Breanna Draxler, Discover Magazine, 25 Jan. 2013
  • This feat of celestial navigation could be one more step toward Carl Sagan’s dream of journeying across the cosmos on reflective sails propelled by beams of light.
    Amy Thompson, Smithsonian, 25 June 2019
  • To learn more about the night sky, book a stargazing session with Vavau where guests take a sunset cruise to a motu (island) and learn about how ancient Polynesians used celestial navigation.
    Sarah Sekula, USA TODAY, 25 Mar. 2021
  • The post represents the Māori’s connection to Antarctica, the use of celestial navigation and the spirit of exploration.
    Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 June 2021
  • The yachters race for 645 miles, using celestial navigation only (in other words, the stars instead of a traditional map).
    Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 May 2019
  • On the ground, the military is starting to retrain pilots, ship captains, and ground troops in fail-safe forms of navigation that don’t rely on GPS—like celestial navigation.
    Garrett M. Graff, WIRED, 26 June 2018
  • This kind of celestial navigation would have made Nabta Playa's stone circle a powerful symbol to the ancient nomadic people.
    Eric Betz, Discover Magazine, 20 June 2020
  • Today, French Polynesia is seeing a resurgence of interest in celestial navigation, sparked by the relaunch of races like the solo-sailing Golden Globe.
    Pam Leblanc, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 May 2022
  • The British Columbia native became the eighth person in the world (and first in North America) to circumnavigate the globe alone using only celestial navigation.
    Alisha Prakash, Travel + Leisure, 21 Sep. 2020
  • Traditional celestial navigation requires measuring the angle of a star or planet in the sky.
    David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 25 Apr. 2021
  • The head looks upward into the sky to symbolize celestial navigation, and the post celebrates past explorers who had ventured to the arrowroot-colored continent.
    New York Times, 2 July 2021
  • The sextant sailors used in the 18th century for celestial navigation had a telescopic attachment (which gave Popeye the Sailor his characteristic squint).
    Austin Grossman, The Atlantic, 13 Oct. 2019
  • The precise time is vital for celestial navigation: an uncertainty of 30 seconds means a distance error of ten kilometers.
    David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 25 Apr. 2021
  • This halau, built through a joint effort between community activists, the county, and the club, is a space where the two men and other community members hold classes for local kids on crafting, oral history, celestial navigation, and ecology.
    Soleil Ho, GQ, 20 Apr. 2018
  • The English missionaries, the French authorities, the Tahitians who adopted foreign ways that had been framed as superior—all had conspired to endanger traditions from tattooing to cooking to celestial navigation.
    Jeff Chu, Travel + Leisure, 30 Jan. 2022
  • As Polynesia was colonized and modernized, the secrets of celestial navigation were nearly forgotten.
    BostonGlobe.com, 15 May 2021
  • While visitors may not enter, an exterior path holds intriguing interpretive signs on Kauai history, Polynesian celestial navigation (the temple platform also holds a star map) and modern stewards of the complex.
    Jeanne Cooper, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Feb. 2018
  • Topics range from mastering celestial navigation to improvising fishing line from thread to getting water from a barrel cactus (only for emergencies, since cactus water can induce diarrhea).
    Bill Heavey, WSJ, 23 May 2018
  • Astronomers, whose research supported celestial navigation—a matter of great economic and military importance—were better positioned than most American scientists to advance their own and their nation’s prestige.
    Evan Hepler-Smith, WSJ, 20 Aug. 2017
  • Since antiquity navigators had been able to find their latitude fairly easily using celestial navigation.
    Meg Neal, Popular Mechanics, 6 Aug. 2020
  • Future ballistic missiles will also include advanced celestial navigation.
    David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 25 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'celestial navigation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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