The brightest star at the lower left of center in this photo is named Arcturus and is the fourth brightest star that can be seen from Earth. It is in the constellation “Bootes,” which is the kite-shaped group of stars that angle upward across the center of the photo. On the lower right are three handle stars of the “Big Dipper”. Following an imaginary curved line from those those three stars can be used to “arc to Arcturus” when looking for that star.
Hawaiians refer to Arcturus as Hōkūle‘a, the happy star. When sailing from Tahiti or the Marquesas, the sailors would go north until Hōkūle‘a was directly overhead at its highest point in the sky. Then they would sail west, keeping Hōkūle‘a overhead until they reached the big island of Hawai’i.
Sounds simple, right? Not exactly: they had no compass and had to use sun, stars, and sea patterns to determine north and west, and if they misjudged the Happy Star’s position overhead by one lousy degree they would miss the island by 60 nautical miles. The ancient wayfinders really knew what they were doing.
#hokulea #arcturus #bootes #wayfinder
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