Taking bearings.

Bearings are taken using the azimuth circle fitted to the compass repeater. It is specially designed so that you can observe the object through a metal sighting V on top of a glass prism and the graduations on the compass card through the glass prism at the same time. It is also fitted with a mirror for taking bearings of heavenly bodies, a bubble level to keep the circle horizontal and two shade glasses when taking bearings of the sun.

Visual bearings of terrestrial objects.

This is the most common form of determining the position of a ship when in sight of land. Usually there are more than one clearly identifiable objects ashore, the positions of which are known, of which visual bearings can be taken. The bearings should be taken as closely together, time wise, as possible to avoid errors caused by the fact that the ship is continuously moving through the water. If three bearings are taken, then the object which is closest to the abeam position is taken first, followed by the other two. The reason for this is that the abeam bearing will change much faster than the others.