Sailors and Astronomy

Abstract

Sailors are neither professional nor amateur astronomers, but people who have to observe the sky in the course of following their professional calling. As soon as sailors ventured far from the coast they required some guide and even in antiquity (as shown by mentions in Homer’s Odyssey and, considerably later, by Aratus) they used Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. With journeys farther afield, they gained some insight into latitude from the changes of the altitude of the circumpolar constellations above the horizon. Although the very last Viking voyagers knew of the magnetic compass, earlier ones still relied on the Sun and the stars. Describing the methods used, Harald Akerlund says “One saga mentions a man, Oddi Heldagon, who was known as “Oddi the Star” and who served as long-distance pilot for an Icelandic magnate towards the end of the 900s. He left notes that included a complete table of the changes in declination of the Sun throughout the year, expressed as the height of the Sun on the meridian in semi-diameters. There is also a small table of azimuths giving the direction at different times of the year, of dawn twilight, defined as being a faint band of light on the horizon, visible before sunrise. We know nothing of the instrument used to measure the altitude of the Sun.”