Affect Of Stars

Jesse Garcia

Polynesians

• They used a type of celestial navigation system called wayfaring, which means they used information about the stars, sun, moon, planets, ocean and trade winds to know which way to go.

• They built boats with a system of rungs that would line up with key stars on the horizon for the navigator to tell direction.

The Vikings

• They primarily used coastal navigation which means that they kept land in sight.

• But when they traveled across the Atlantic ocean they used a sun compass, which could tell them direction by casting a curved shadow onto a disk with notches carved on it.

Ancient Greeks

• The had a guy named Ptolemy, who was the first to make maps using stories from travelers and sailors.

• They also were the first to use latitude and longitude to tell positioning on a map.

Europeans

• They also used celestial navigation. They used the rising of the sun to orientate them from being east or west.

• And they used the positioning of navigational stars to orientate whether from being north or south.

Important Stars For Navigation?

• One is the North Star, called Polaris, which is a part of the constellation Ursa Minor, commonly known as the little dipper.

• Second is the southern cross. Which is a constellation of four stars called Crixa, two of which point towards the celestial south pole.