Since ancient times, the world’s population, most of them living in the northern hemisphere, have learned to navigate the area with the help of a number of stars in the starry sky. There were no GPS satellites, nor was there a single compass in the sky. This was especially important for sailors and travelers. Here are some ways of long-forgotten rules orientation.
- 1. The Northern Hemisphere.
The first way is to determine the part of the world North on the ground. To do this, you need to learn how to identify several key stars.
As you may have guessed, this is the North Star (aka Kinosura). This is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor and is located at the end of its so-called tail. If you observe the starry sky for a long time, you will notice that it is almost not movable in comparison with other stars. This is explained by the fact that it is within one degree of the starry north pole. In order to find it, used index stars such as Merak and Dubhe.
(the text from the picture:
Five distances between Merak and Dubhe, laid in the direction Merak > Dubhe, will point out to the North Star)
These stars are located on the edge of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), on the opposite side of its handle. You can also find out the latitude at which you are. To do this, you need to stretch your fist to the horizon and put your second fist on your first fist until you reach the North Star. Your outstretched one fist is approximately 10 degrees of angle.
- 2. The southern hemisphere.
The Southern Cross, consisting of four stars, is a vibrant constellation. Mentally draw a line along the stars forming the vertical part of the cross. And a line will point out to the South.
Since there is a small error in this method, it is possible to more accurately determine the South as follows.
Find two stars, called the Southern signs, these will be the alpha and beta Centauri stars, they are located to the west of the Southern Cross and point out to it.
Mentally connect them with a line and draw a perpendicular from its middle to the point of intersection with the line drawn from the Southern Cross (see above). The intersection point will point strictly south.