Sight reduction

In astronavigation, sight reduction is the process of deriving from a sight (in celestial navigation usually obtained using a sextant) the information needed for establishing a line of position, generally by intercept method.

Sight is defined as the observation of the altitude, and sometimes also the azimuth, of a celestial body for a line of position; or the data obtained by such observation.^[1]

The mathematical basis of sight reduction is the circle of equal altitude. The calculation can be done by computer, or by hand via tabular methods and longhand methods.