Starry Night: navigating by the stars

When one spends half of their year sleeping under the stars it's helpful to know something about the night sky. As a wilderness guide, I made it a point to know every constellation, star name, locations of nebulae visible with binoculars, and all the mythic stories in the northern hemisphere.

Getting Oriented: Circumpolar Constellations

It takes time to truly learn the sky. Most folks begin with familiar landmarks: the Big Dipper is a great starting point. A circumpolar constellation, the Dipper is visible at any time, although in the fall it can be quite low in the horizon.

The Little Dipper is not nearly as bright or visible, but still easy to locate if you sight off the two stars edging the spoon of the Big Dipper. The vessel of the Little Dipper isn't as perfectly-shaped, but the two bowls chase each other counter-clockwise across our skies all night, every night, like a celestial clock. The center of this clock, of course, is the North Star, called Polaris, the last star at the end of the handle on the Little Dipper.

Most people think Polaris - the Pole Star - must be bright. It isn't. Polaris is a second magnitude star that just happens to be centered directly over the earth's axis. Its claim to fame - Polaris is directly North, never moves, won't deviate, and you can set your directions from it without fear of losing your way.

Knowing Polaris is the first step to travelling in the wilderness at night. Each star follows a fixed relative motion through the sky, and if you know your constellations you will never need a compass. Since Polaris doesn't travel it's a no-brainer for navigation.

The Big Dipper can be used just like a clock, since it chases the Pole Star all night. If you take the time to note where the Big Dipper is at early starlight, you can tick off the hours while it travels around its axis. Remember that stars travel counterclockwise, and that there are 24 hours in a day. Practice counting off the hours of night sometime. You'll amaze your friends.

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Celestial Navigation: naming the stars and planets

Ancient Greek mariners were famous for celestial navigation, and appropriately, most Northern Hemisphere constellations sport Greek names. Orion the Hunter, Draco, Hercules, Auriga the Charioteer, Virgo, Sagittarius and the whole zodiacal pantheon.

A less-known fact is that many stars themselves bear Arabic names. Makes sense when you recall that Nomadic desert tribes travelled at night, across vast desert distances to remote oases. The bright, well-known stars Betelguise, Aldebaran, Rigel, Deneb and Vega are all Arabic names. It makes for interesting studies. Beteguise, the bright red star in Orion, means "armpit of the giant." Rigel, the blue star at Orion's "foot", actually means "the foot". Vega means "stooping eagle". Deneb, in Cygnus, means "the tail." Fascinating, Captain.

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