Navigation in Space (part 3)

Without a fixed point to reference like the north pole, sea level, or the north star, flying in space can be a little...disorienting. If you're in a starship traveling in space and detect another object floating out there with you, you need reference points. It was suggested to me that the nearest fixed point in space, such as a nearby star, be used to calculate X, Y, and Z coordinates. I learned from the aerospace engineer that one of the newest methods being used currently involves a typical triangulation method for position determination, similar to our GPS technology. It uses interstellar Pulsars as points of light (actually X-rays) that are emitted from the poles of pulsating Neutron stars. However, this becomes problematic when your starship transitions to an area where there is a nearer star, or a nearer set of Pulsars. Imagine the problem of trying to calculate position effectively when moving back and forth between these areas, where one star/pulsar is the nearest, then another becomes the nearest, then you fly a loop and end up nearest to the previous one. Constantly changing reference points in this situation would be confusing to the poor captain trying to call out directions to his equally confused helmsman. Imagine the difficulty of flying an RC helicopter away from you, then turning it around to fly it towards you, where suddenly many of the directions become inverted because of its new facing. All of this can become insanely confusing. That's why I turned to a friend who spent a lot of time in the belly of a Navy submarine...