Sky Cultures · 5 of 7
Polynesian Wayfinding
How do you cross 4,000 km of open ocean with no instruments?
One voyage, Tahiti to Hawaiʻi, across 4,000 km of open Pacific with no instruments: a star overhead, a cross on the horizon, and a compass made of rising points.
You’ll be able to read the rising points of stars as a compass, the way Polynesian navigators did.
Before this: Finding the North Star (6 min), The Southern Cross (6 min)
Where and which night
Working out when this is best placed from where you are…
Where
Kept for this guide only, until you change it here — your map settings, and every other guide, stay as they are.
Print, play outside or present
Scan with a phone's camera, or open
Sources
- HYG stellar database v4.2 — star positions, magnitudes and every separation quoted here
- Polynesian Voyaging Society — the Hawaiian star compass and latitude by the Southern Cross, as taught by Nainoa Thompson
- Finney, Hokule'a: The Way to Tahiti (Dodd, Mead, 1979) — the 1976 voyage navigated by Mau Piailug
- Johnson, Mahelona & Ruggles, Nā Inoa Hōkū: Hawaiian and Pacific Star Names (Ocarina Books, 2015)
- Lewis, We, the Navigators (University of Hawaii Press, 2nd ed. 1994) — zenith stars and latitude sailing
- IAU Working Group on Star Names — the catalogue of approved names, with their cultures of origin
With a keyboard, focus the sky, aim it with the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter to drop the pin at the centre of the view; or press Show me.