🔍 Key Concepts

• Steering on a range or transit to check if you’re maintaining course • The idea of a bearing that is most sensitive to small changes in heading • How the relative position of a celestial body (sun, star, planet) affects the usefulness of its bearing for checking course

💭 Think About

• If your course is 042°T, in what general direction (ahead, abeam, astern) should a body lie so that even a small deviation from 042° shows up clearly as a bearing change? • Compare how quickly a bearing will change if the body is nearly dead ahead/astern versus nearly on the beam when you alter your heading slightly. • Look at each answer choice and ask: which one places the body in the position where any small heading error is easiest to detect?

✅ Before You Answer

• Make sure you understand that you want the bearing that gives maximum change in observed bearing for a small change in your ship’s heading. • Check which choice puts the celestial body closest to being abeam of your course of 042°T. • Verify that the chosen bearing is measured true (°T) and is consistent with the given true course.