Surviving
Navigation
The Wayfinders of Oceania rely on the constellations to guide them.
Most ancient cultures relied on the North Star or Southern Cross to guide
them, but because Oceania is located so close to the Equator, the North
Star and Southern Cross appear too low in the sky for the Wayfarers to
use them for navigation.
The North Star is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa
Minor. It is located very near the northernmost point in the sky,
the North Pole.
The Southern Cross is a cluster of stars in the sky in the southern
hemisphere with four bright stars that look like the points of
a cross.
Instead, they relied on the constellations, which appear to rise
straight up in the east and set straight downward in the west,
to navigate.
Rather than writing their information down, Wayfarers memorized
the locations of the stars, sailing directions and how to predict
weather by observing the waves and the clouds. They could then
travel to a nearby island by making note of the stars that rose
and set right above the destination island and then using those
stars as their guide. They used their knowledge of wind and water
currents with the stars to determine how far they were from their
destination and how long their journey would take. When the guide
star was directly overhead, they knew they had reached their desired
location.
The Wayfarers could travel thousands of miles by following the
constellations in this way.
«
previous 2
of 2
|
