NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Shooting the Sun
From: Bill Murdoch
Date: 1999 Jan 21, 5:17 PM
From: Bill Murdoch
Date: 1999 Jan 21, 5:17 PM
It is funny how if you just sit still, things come your way. A couple of weeks ago someone asked, "Why is it called shooting the sun ?" I got a copy of "Taking the Stars" by Peter Ifland for Christmas. (An interesting book; glossy and expensive, but cheaper from the Hampton Mariner's Museum than Barnes and Noble.) On page 8 while talking about the cross-staff, Ifland says: With the staff held up to the eye with one hand and the transom grasped in the other, the pose clearly resembles that of an archer taking aim at the sun with a bow and arrow - hence, the origin of the term "shooting the sun" (Figure 10) Figure 10 is from a 1552 source. Bill Murdoch =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= =-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@roninhouse.com: =-= =-= navigation =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=
