I am poaching this one -
Credit to NY Times.
If I could pick another career and start over, it'd be Pacific Island Cultural Celestial Navigator. Earlier in my career, I had the wonderful opportunity to experience the island of Kaho'olawe. I still have a panoramic picture I took from a place near the top of the island where you could see the island chain from Oahu (on a clear day) down to the Big Island. The pre-contact Hawaiians used this place as a navigational training area - you could see the currents move between the islands during the day and more importantly, the stars rise in the night. This is a large portion of what polynesian celestial navigation is about. If you know the ALL the stars in the night sky, then as you see the relative angle the stars are coming up from the horizon, you can tell what your latitude is.
Western celestial nav is based on identifying a known star and calculating position based on tables.
Two distinct ways of using the same resource, but as different as bats are from birds.
Mau - may you be at peace among the stars that you have looked up to for so long and thank you for the gift that you gave to us all!
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