Navigation as a theme?

[HawaiiBill]

Couldn't spot it but wondered if our wonderful iceinspace has a thread on the Polynesian voyaging use of celestial navigation. We have Hokulea and other fine canoes, replicas of ancient Hawaiian/Polynesian design sailing out of Hawai`i and being used as marvelous instruments to get young folks interested in astronomy. I attended a lecture by one of the Hokulea crew at Imiloa, the University of Hawai`i connected planetarium in Hilo and I thought of my new friends here.

Aloha from the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Bill

I don't remember it being discussed before, so here's a good a place as any.

I was listening to a podcast recently that spoke about the Polynesians and how they used celestial navigation to get around the many islands and establish trade routes. All from using the stars as their guide.

I can imagine the complex and very accurate star charts they would've needed to pull that off.

I have heard a lot of military (and probably scout groups as well) are also taught basic celestial navigation, such as using Polaris or Ursa Major to identify where North is (if you're in the northern hemisphere), and of course the Pointers and the Southern Cross to help identify where South is (if you're in the Southern hemisphere).

I guess once you've got 1 direction you can work out the rest reasonably accurately.

[xelasnave]

They also used the wave direction as part of their kit.
alex