3 ms·
Well, good point, but every moment in history had its fixed south and north stars, you could find easily, if you were familiar with the sky. Which everyone was
by hutzlibu 3y ago
Well, good point, but every moment in history had its fixed south and north stars, you could find easily, if you were familiar with the sky. Which everyone was back then. As well as some animals, who also use the stars for navigation.
- ComputerGuru 3y agoThere’s no good reason to assume that in the absence of an extremely bright star that happens to be north-aligned that a culture navigated the stars with a north-anchored reference ;)
- hutzlibu 3y agoThe reason would be, that you can see that the sky is rotating around a certain point in the north, or south depending where you are. All the stars are changing - but this point is not. So even when there is no bright star at that spot - there will be star constellations around pointing towards it. A fixed point or area of reference ( and with no artificial lights, there definitely would be some star to see). But of course if you really know the dark sky well, there are a lot more points of references, you will remember what constellations will be where at what time of the night at what season. Or where the moon is, etc.