Navigation and Mapping

"Up, down, left and right are pretty damned meaningless if you have no idea how you are oriented in relation to the person giving you directions."

## Navigation Systems

There are three different mapping and co-ordinate systems used by the UNITI  when locating something precisely in space.

* The *Celestial System* uses references where the observer is located on the surface of a planet. This is the oldest form of reference used, since it dates back to a time when species may not have even realised the vastness of space. The Celestial system is limited to stargazers and observers who remain in a fixed location, such as hobby astronomers. Whilst the references can be consistent, in that they describe a semi-sphere of observable ‘sky’ the system is completely useless even in discussions outside of the fixed frames of refence on a planetary surface or station.

* The *Ecliptic System* is used to describe references within a  Solar System. Local systems will favour slightly different means of choosing the plane but in the majority of cases, it is determined by the orbital path of the majority of celestial bodies in the solar system. Some systems choose to base their ecliptic plane on the plane of their home world or the first planet colonised in a system. This system often came into favour as species began to explore beyond the confines of their home planet.

* The *Galactic System* is used to describe the location of items within the Galaxy and is based on the rotation of the Galactic plane. This system gained importance twice, once when species began to leave their home system and secondly when species started interacting with each other. The current Galactic system used in the UNITI has been used since the Commonwealth of Species.

## Mapping using the Galactic System

The Galactic plane is used as the frame of reference. Where the direction of spin is observed as moving clockwise, this is determined as observing from *Galactic North*. Some people refer to this as being ‘above’ the Galactic plane.
Cardinal directions such as ‘east’ or ‘right’ are meaningless in space, since all are referential.

* Corew   ard is used as a direction, to refer in the direction of the galactic centre.

* Edgeward is used to refer to the line directly away from the galactic centre.

* Spinwise refers to something that would be ‘clockwise’ along the galactic plane, some navigators also refer to ‘up arm’ though since the arms spiral this is an inaccurate measurement.

* Anti-Spinwise is the opposite direction.

## Mapping using the Ecliptic System

Solar Systems each have their own rotational plane, which may not be aligned with the Galactic plane. For example, the Sol System is pitched at an angle of 60 degrees with relation to the galactic plane.

* Within each Solar system, the galactic format is converted. Looking ‘down’ on the Solar system, an observer would be considered positioned at Solar North.

* Coreward is replaced with Sunward, but Edgeward now refers to the edge of the solar system.

* Spinwise and Anti-Spinwise refer to the rotation of the majority of objects in the solar system.

## Writing Co-ordinates using the Galactic System

Co-ordinates used in the 3-dimensional galactic system correspond to the three scalar measurements:

* The first measure is, in light years, the distance from the galactic core. Coreward-Edgeward co-ordinates ranges from 0 to 50,000.

* The second measure counts, in Arcminutes the distance Spinwise-Anti-Spinwise from the line drawn from the Capital Ereso, through to the galactic core. These numbers range from +10,800 to -10,800. Each arcminute is a longer distance, depending on the Edgeward distance. One unit aligned with Ereso is approximately 7.56 LY

* The third measure uses galactic North-South to determine how far, in light years, ‘above or below’ the galactic plane, the location is. These numbers range from -1,000 to +1,000.

* As an example, the SOL system is located at Galactic Co-ordinates: 26021.1 / 13.4 / 91