When the ship target is far away from infrared/visible compound seeker, the target information and features are very weak which can be extracted from the infrared and visible images, and conventional image registration algorithms are hard to take effect on the registration of infrared and visible image with small target. To solve the problem, an infrared and visible image registration algorithm is presented based on sensor parameters. Firstly, according to the imaging model of compound seeker, the image registration is decomposed to two independent steps (field of view registration and shift registration). Secondly, the field of view for different sensors are registered using the sensor parameters. Finally, the shift registration is performed by matching point located based on horizontal high pass energy image and sea-sky line. The experimental results prove that the method is feasible and effective, and can be used in the actual registration of infrared and visible image with small ship target.