The Star Compass is the primary tool used for non-instrumental navigation. It is laid out with the vessel, or person in the middle of the compass. Radiating out from the center are 32 navigation points, spaced at 11.25 degrees from each other. The compass is flat, meaning that each navigation point corresponds to point on the horizon and therefore a direction on our modern compass.

The stars, directions and other terms are taught in Satawalese, one of the languages of the Master Navigators. Two important words to start you off are tan (rising) and tupul (setting). You may notice that the compass is laid out with east at the top and west at the bottom. This is because in star navigation we use the rising and setting points of the stars to determine direction, as opposed to magnetic north as in our modern compass. Each navigation direction begins with either "tan" or "tupul" and is proceeded by the name of a star or constallation. If you observe the star compass you will see that star names are repeated on opposite sides of the compass, one at the rising position and one at the setting position. Throughout the night stars will travel from one side of the horizon to the other, by marking their rising and setting positions you can tell what direction you are going. For example: Tan Eliel (Orion's Belt) rises into the sky and at 8:00 pm it is just visible on the horizon, at this point you must mark that direction and you now know which direction is east-south-east. Throughout the evening Orion will continue to rise into the sky, you can continue to use what you know about its trajectory to estimate it's starting position, but eventually this will become difficult and probably unaccurate. In order to properly navigate you will need to know all the constallations, what time of year they are in the sky and what direction they correspond to in both their rising and setting positions.