Systems and methods for identifying a location illuminated by an onboard searchlight on a vehicle are presented. A location of interest is illuminated at an illuminated location illuminated by the onboard searchlight, and a vehicle position of the vehicle and the onboard searchlight is determined. A vehicle orientation of the vehicle is determined based on a pitch, roll, and yaw of the vehicle, and an azimuth and an elevation of the onboard searchlight light is recorded to provide a recorded azimuth and elevation data. A pointing coordinate for the onboard searchlight illuminating the illuminated location is computed based on the vehicle orientation, the vehicle position, and the recorded azimuth and the elevation data, and the illuminated location is calculated based on the pointing coordinate.