Long before GPS and magnetic compasses, written maps or even writing, people oriented themselves under the cosmos using rules of thumb. Orally transmitted knowledge has repeatedly shown that Indigenous peoples all over the world have sophisticated understandings of the stars. And in early literature like Homer’s “Odyssey,” the nymph Calypso teaches Odysseus how to sail home by keeping the Great Bear constellation to his left.
By now, it should seem like there is nothing new under the billions of suns that make up the night sky that could help people navigate in the dark. But a British author, Tristan Gooley, writes in a new book about following environmental signs throughout the year, “The Hidden Seasons,” that he has identified a new pair of hacks to find one’s way through the world by starlight. The book is published by the independent publisher The Experiment and comes out on Oct. 21.
Mr. Gooley, a proponent of what he calls natural navigation, preaches attention to common patterns in nature like a sommelier describing wine — the shadows cast by the sun here, the tree angled there, the moss greener on this side of the rock.
As part of that work he has invented, or perhaps reinvented, a couple of wayfinding methods.
For example: After sunset in midwinter in the Northern Hemisphere, dress warm and go outdoors to a spot where you have a relatively unobstructed view to the south. Rolling up to the sky from the southeast, you’ll see a letter “V” made up of bright stars in the constellation Taurus. When two particular stars in that “V” are stacked in an invisible vertical line, let that line drop down to the horizon, where it will point due south.
Or suppose it’s a midsummer night instead. You can perform the same kind of trick (in lighter clothing) with a pattern of stars that resemble a teapot inside the constellation Sagittarius. When two of these stars, Ascella and Kaus Media, align horizontally in the sky, you’re in business.
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