Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: Jack Linthicum <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:25:21 -0700
On Aug 15, 1:59 am, Weatherlawyer <Weatherlaw...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Aug 13, 3:25 pm, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Aug 13, 9:51 am, "Arved Sandstrom" <asandst...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
"Weatherlawyer" <Weatherlaw...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1186918198.351174.180840@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Aug 12, 11:51 am, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Aug 12, 12:22 am, BlackBeard <spk_...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Sailors used to navigate by the stars. (end of Naval content)
Don't forget to stargaze tomorrow night for what should be one of
the better Perseid meteor showers in the last couple years. A new
moon will assist and if you aren't fortunate to live in the mojave
desert with little light pollution (Hey, you count your blessing
where you can find them dammit! ;) try and get out to the countryside
and away from the lights. Look NE from just above the horizon
(Perseus will be rising) to the zenith, the heaviest concentration,
about 90-100 per hour, will occur around 11pm pacific time.
My grandson and I are going to camp out on the deck with some
popcorn and the appropriate juice and make a night of it.
To steal a phrase "Virginia, it doesn't get any better than this"
ouch, that felt so ...dirty.
BB
I guess everybody has some mountain to climb.
It's just fate whether you live in Kansas or Tibet...
I recently had a long exchange on another newsgroup with someone who
believes that all sailors up to whenever, only sailed from one coastal
point to another in daylight. More recently, I have been informed that
the island of Crete was colonized from Anatolia about 7,000 years ago,
with cattle, sheep, pigs etc. Any boat or ship trip at that time would
have, out of necessity, been beyond daylight. The "boat" was probably
several logs tied together and paddled.
What a broad sweep of generalities with little or no support. Mere
public opinion might serve well in a democracy where the process would
turn up the occasional turnip for chimp but in science that sort of
thing will no do.
Most of us now live in cities where the stars are not evident, but a
half mile from the sea you can't miss them. In the neolithic
Mediterranean they would have been more obvious yet.
What time of day would that have been, then?
Since trade was pretty well sorted out over North Africa and Europe,
it would have been an easily frightened entrepreneur that was afraid
to cross the Med., in daylight or dark. And a proven merchant would
have soon gained willing hands to join him in prospering across the
sea.
[ SNIP ]
Extensive travel at sea at night was obviously happening many millennia ago.
Witness the Polynesians and Phoenicians. Not to mention Scandinavians.
AHS
When the Polynesians were exploring they used factors such as
currents, waves, flight of birds to find places and then registered
them in memory.
"After the discovery of a new island, the altitude of stars passing
overhead and the places on the horizon of rising and setting stars
would be carefully observed and incorporated into the lore of the
navigators. Such knowledge would enable them to find the island again.
Places for astronomical study were built, often as rock platforms
oriented in some relationship to certain celestial events."
If you could just analyse your feelings and then remove the detritus
from your posts you wouldn't end up shooting yourself in the foot so
often.
Mind telling anyone how the Polynesians developed such abilities
without a need for them?
Such knowledge would enable them to find the island again.
They couldn't just describe the route? I'd have thought there'd be
obvious markers if all the pioneers had top do was crawl along from
one coast to another before dark.
They were smarter than the average poster on newsgroups, bread crumbs
tend to soak up the ocean water and sink. I take it you have never
been at sea with the need to get from one point to another 2000 miles
away. "Go 1800 miles and hang a left" is not navigation.
That crawl along the coast crap is true only for warships with very
limited supplies. If you are a trader and you have goods to sell or
trade you don't haul your ass or your boat up on some sunny seashore
every 8-12 hours. That is, of course, if there is a place to haul one
or the other up on shore, geography tends to do its own thing. After
about a year of observation a good sailor can look at a path and
determinte if the wind is right and where the stars are when you get
to where you are going. Missing by 60 miles or so, considered a crime
nowadays, was just part of the process.
Illustration: Prince Henry of Portugal seems to have had either a
theory or knowledge about the Azores. He told his navigator to steer
due West from Lisbon until he hit an island. True course is 10 degrees
off that but PH seems to have known about currents and drift. Smart
man.
.
- References:
- Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: BlackBeard
- Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: Jack Linthicum
- Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: Weatherlawyer
- Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: Arved Sandstrom
- Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: Jack Linthicum
- Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- From: Weatherlawyer
- Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- Prev by Date: Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- Next by Date: Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- Previous by thread: Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- Next by thread: Re: Navigation by the stars and the Perseids
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
