High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Fifty-eight selected navigational stars are given a special status in the field of celestial navigation. Of the approximately 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye under optimal conditions, the selected stars are among the brightest and span thirty-eight constellations of the celestial sphere from the declination of 70° south to 89° north. Many of the selected stars were named in antiquity by the ancient Arabs, Greeks, Romans, and Babylonians.