Astrogator

Adjust bearing sixteen degrees ten minutes alee.

Perhaps the most vital role to be found aboard a star ship, surpassing even that of captain in necessity if not rank, the Astrogator is the warrant officer in charge of navigating through interstellar space. In the early days of humanity's voyages upon the Tides, the ship's captain or commander would often take charge of navigating their vessel, but it quickly became apparent that they lacked the skills to navigate consistently. Over a couple of hundred years, a new specialist officer, the Astrogator, began to emerge as the specialised skills and practical knowledge slowly built up.

The Astrogator's Art

It takes a lifetime of practical experience to build up the instinct for anticipating the Tides. To the uninitiated, it must look like magic.

Sailing upon the Ion Tides is often seen as analogous to sailing upon the surface of an ocean, albeit one that the ocean is three dimensional with no well defined "up" or "north" and buoyancy does not exist. While this analogy is still perpetuated by the Guild of Astrogators as an explanation that most non-initiated can easily understand, the reality is far more complicated than that and attempting to sail a star ship on the Tides as if it were on the water's surface is more likely to invite disaster than not.
For all the sensitive equipment found bolted onto masts and hulls, a star ship can only sample the background of dark matter plasma that makes up the Ion Tides immediately surrounding itself. A star ship relying only upon local instrumentation is effectively flying blind, vulnerable to sudden changes in Ion density associated with a transient Ion Storm or the Termination Shock surrounding the deep gravity well of a star system. It takes a skilled Astrogator to avoid these hazards and navigate safely through interstellar space.
Much of the Astrogator's art is not strictly based on hard science. Most Astrogators are deeply superstitious individuals.