Meridian Nav vs Compass Observation App

Meridian is a celestial navigation toolkit built at sea by a working deck officer — fully offline, because mid-ocean is exactly where you need it. SIGHT REDUCTION Compute Hc, Zn and intercept for the Sun, Moon, four planets and 63 navigational stars. Enter your DR position, date/time and sextant altitude — get your line of position. COMPASS ERROR Check gyro error by azimuth of any celestial body — the daily routine, without the almanac and tables. Magnetic variation (WMM2025) is built in for magnetic compass work. STAR FINDER A polar sky-dome view shows exactly which bodies are observable right now from your position — plan your twilight sights before stepping out on the bridge wing. Includes an azimuth-scatter view for picking the best LOP geometry. SUN / MOON Rise, set, meridian passage and twilight times for any position and date. MARINE CHART — FULLY OFFLINE A custom offline vector chart with world time-zone (ZD) boundaries, DST awareness, ports and waypoint routes. Import route files (.rtz / .rou) straight from your ECDIS. CLOCK PLAN Generate the entire voyage's retard/advance schedule from your route — including DST transitions and solar-zone departures. Reorder or edit the changes, then export a clean calendar-style PDF or Excel notice, ready to post on board. UNIT CONVERTER The conversions a navigator actually uses, in two taps. ACCURACY & VALIDATION Every body — Sun, Moon, planets and 63 navigational stars — is cross-checked against JPL ephemeris data (the same source behind the official Nautical Almanac) to arc-minute agreement. Star positions are computed for the current date from the ESA Hipparcos catalogue. Sun azimuth verified at sea against a ship's bridge calculator, and against NOAA's solar calculator (0.000° difference). MADE FOR Deck officers who want a fast backup and sanity check, cadets and officers studying celestial navigation, and anyone who believes a navigator should still be able to find a ship without a satellite. No account. No ads. No subscription. No internet required. One-time purchase. IMPORTANT Meridian is a reference and training aid for celestial navigation. It is not a certified navigation system and does not replace official nautical publications, charts, or type-approved equipment.

The compass check and celestial navigation toolkit for deck officers, yachtsmen and navigation students. Everything is calculated on your phone, offline, with no account, no ads and no data collection. PHONE COMPASS • Your heading, magnetic or true, with the Sun, the Moon and your chosen body marked on the dial • Find your phone's own compass error by aligning it to the Sun or the Moon; AR Sky uses the same correction COMPASS & GYRO ERROR • Gyro and standard compass error from any body's true bearing, with variation (World Magnetic Model) and deviation worked out for you • SOLAS gyro-error limit check for your latitude • Amplitude worksheet: compass error at sunrise or sunset, with the exact bearing for the Sun's centre on the visible horizon (dip, refraction and parallax applied) as well as the classic formula • Deviation cards with a fitted deviation curve and a PDF report SIGHT REDUCTION & FIX • Enter your sextant altitude in degrees and minutes as the sextant reads it • Index error, dip, refraction (with air temperature and pressure), semi-diameter and parallax, including the Moon's augmentation • Intercept and azimuth (Marcq St-Hilaire), drawn on a plotting sheet • Show calculation: every step written out with its formula, then with your sight's numbers • Fix from two or more saved sights by least squares, including running fixes with course and speed, plotted with every line of position • Meridian Passage: the time of noon for your DR, course and speed, and your latitude from the noon sight, every step shown; a morning sun line run up to noon gives the noon position • A countdown to meridian passage on your chronometer, in UTC or ship's time: it ticks faster over the last minute and sounds a tone at the passage • Latitude by Polaris at any time of the night, worked out exactly for the moment of the sight (northern hemisphere) • Ship's time: set the zone your ship keeps, and times are shown on the ship's clock • Twilight Stars: the best 3 to 5 stars for a fix at the next morning or evening twilight, spread round the horizon, with the altitude to preset on the sextant and the bearing to face; tap one to find it in AR Sky COASTAL NAVIGATION • Distance off a lighthouse, cliff or charted peak by its vertical sextant angle, to its waterline or to the sea horizon, with the tide below high water springs, your height of eye, the earth's curve and refraction (Bowditch's tables) • The vertical danger angle: the most the sextant may read to stay outside a clearing distance • Where a light rises or dips over the horizon: its distance from its height and yours, for a fix with one bearing SKY & EPHEMERIS • Sun, Moon, planets and the 57 navigational stars plus Polaris, computed to almanac accuracy (VSOP87 and Meeus algorithms, with nutation, aberration, refraction and ΔT) • Rise, set, transit and twilight times • Star Dome: the whole sky at a glance, with GoTo to any body • AR Sky: point your camera at the sky to see stars, planets, the Sun and Moon, all 88 constellations, classic Hevelius constellation art and the Milky Way. Search any star, planet or constellation and the app points you to it. AT SEA • Logbook of compass checks, sights and fixes, with CSV export • Dark, light and red night-vision themes that protect your night vision on the bridge Star data: HYG Database (CC BY-SA 4.0). Moon and Milky Way imagery: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio. Constellation art: Johannes Hevelius (1690), public domain. Compass Observation App is a training and cross-checking aid. It is not a substitute for official nautical publications or the ship's primary means of navigation; always verify with approved sources.