NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Time-space synaesthia -- a key navigation skill?
From: Peter Hakel
Date: 2010 Apr 5, 16:34 -0700
I have no info on whether this is historically accurate but it does make sense to me.
Peter Hakel
From: Apache Runner <apacherunner@gmail.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Mon, April 5, 2010 3:37:47 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Time-space synaesthia -- a key navigation skill?
Following up - how did north become "up" on a map?
From: Peter Hakel
Date: 2010 Apr 5, 16:34 -0700
Our culture originated in the northern hemisphere. So we orient ourselves facing north (a linguistic oxymoron...), the Earth's surface is below your feet and all directions come out as you described. Our maps inherit that arrangement.
To view the sky, lie on the ground on your back with the head pointing north or, better yet, get a reclining chair pointing at Polaris. :-) That way you can observe the "more interesting" part of the sky that will change with the seasons, instead of the same circumpolar section. Now the east is on the left and west is to the right, which translates into star charts.
To view the sky, lie on the ground on your back with the head pointing north or, better yet, get a reclining chair pointing at Polaris. :-) That way you can observe the "more interesting" part of the sky that will change with the seasons, instead of the same circumpolar section. Now the east is on the left and west is to the right, which translates into star charts.
I have no info on whether this is historically accurate but it does make sense to me.
Peter Hakel
From: Apache Runner <apacherunner@gmail.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Mon, April 5, 2010 3:37:47 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Time-space synaesthia -- a key navigation skill?
Following up - how did north become "up" on a map?
Why is it that for modern maps, north is up, east is right, west is left, but on a star chart, east is to the left and west is to the right?