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The main object of our book is to present quaternions, their properties, and their applications without using special knowledge in mathematics which may be beyond the scope of regular courses for engineers. Also we would like to collect in one paper and to observe from a unified point of view the properties of quaternions which are the most important for applications, despite the fact that some of them were presented and discussed by other authors. Thus, the book contains, of course, known facts in quaternions as well as new results which were developed by the author. In the introduction the current situation in using quaternions is discussed, and a review of literature on applications of quaternions in different fields: geodesy, photogrammetry, space and terrestrial navigation is given. In Chapter 1 the concept of quaternions, definitions and notations are given. We make clear the intimate relation between quaternions and the reference frames where their imaginary parts are considered. Connections between vectors and quaternions and the matrix form of quaternion multiplication are discussed here. Chapter 2 contains the most important input of quaternions in classical mechanics. We consider quaternionic treatment of rotations, as well as the quaternion form of kinematic equation of a rigid body motion in a rotating reference frame. Particular attention is given to clarify the result of a sequence of rotations in quaternions. A comparison with traditional parameters as Eulerian angles, etc. is given. Examples of rotating reference frames connected with the Earth illustrate the theory. In Chapter 3 some problems of matrix representations of quaternions and linear quaternion equations are considered. It is shown that different matrix representations of quaternions correspond to different (right and left) orientations of reference frames. A comparison with Pauli matrices is given from the viewpoint of orientation. It is shown that Pauli matrices are particular cases of matrix representations of basic quaternions. Characteristic equations of matrix representations of the most important quaternion relationships are investigated. The theorem that the general form of a linear quaternion equation is invariant with respect to rotations is proved here and different important linear quaternion equations are solved. Chapter 4 contains the mathematical background of extremal and conditional extremal problems in quaternions as well as the theory of quaternion interpolation. The least square method for quaternions is treated as a conditional extremum problem. Chapter 5 contains the quaternionic description of the main reference frames, connected with the Earth, and used in geodesy, photogrammetry, and navigation. The quaternions which transform one reference frame into another are presented, and the quaternion formulas for transformations of vectors from one reference frame into another are given. We present here also the quaternion formulas for relationship between reference frames having origins at the center of mass of the Sun and at the center of mass of the Earth respectively. In Chapter 6 the main problems of photogrammetry: the problem of photo exterior orientation and the problem of relative orientation of a stereo-pair are considered. These problems are treated as quaternion conditional extremum problems. Mathematical models of the problems are given and different cases of orientations of photos are considered. Chapter 7 contains the problems of spacecraft navigation: -- Orientation of a spacecraft by using additional observations of several space objects. We distinguish two types of observed objects with zero and nonzero daily parallax and give solutions for both cases. -- Estimation of rotating spacecraft attitude by a quaternion modification of the Kalman filter. -- Determination of initial attitude, location, and velocity of a vehicle. In every case we give a mathematical formulation of the problem as a quaternion conditional extremum problem and reduce it to algebraic quaternion equations.