celestial navigation

noun

|Updated on: 2 Jul 2018

Definition of celestial navigation

: navigation by observation of the positions of celestial bodies

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Recent Examples of celestial navigation from the Web

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, "The New Arms Race Threatening to Explode in Space," 26 June 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, "Summer Books: Camping," 23 May 2018
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, "Kohanaiki: Where the Mega-Rich Hide Away on Hawai'i," 20 Apr. 2018
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, "One Day, One Place: In search of ancient Kauai," 8 Feb. 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, "Gilded Age Shadow Catchers," 20 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'celestial navigation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.