Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to tell where you are during the night just by using stars. For one, the Polaris or north star is a degree or two west or east of real north. Also, using Polaris, it is also easy to know the latitude of the Northern hemisphere thanks in part to a tool called astrolabe.
What Is An Astrolabe?
This is an instrument that is used to be able to determine a object’s altitude just above a horizon. The astrolabe has been around for thousands of years. People have long used it as a tool for them to navigate easily. It was said that Greeks invented the astrolabe.
However, astrolabes have been using it also during the eighth century. The fact of the matter is that in the year 1381, Geoffrey Chaucer was said to have written a particular treatise on Astrolabe. Though currently, GPS has made the astrolabe no longer as needed as it used to, it is an equipment that is worth learning to use and making.
The following are ways and means to make your very own astrolabe.
Making An Astrolabe
First things first, get a plastic straw, protractor, a twelve inch string, metal weight. Then, tie the string’s end to the middle of the protractor’s hole. If no hole is available, drill a hole in the middle of the edged flat piece of the protractor.
Then, attach a weight to one end of your string. It is now time to tape a straw along the protractor’s flat edge.
It is now time to use the astrolabe in order to make sure that it works. Try to locate the Polaris and using astrolabe, determine its altitude. Look at the star through the plastic straw and take note the specific degree the lines are up on your protractor.
Read the number set that range from zero to ninety degrees. Such numbers are considered zenith angle. In order to know the angle altitude, subtract the angle zenith from ninety degrees. You may not believe this but the answer will also be similar or at least close to the particular latitude at your location sight.
All in all, astrolabes are still efficient equipments despite their age and despite of current technological advances which makes seem to make their use seem irrelevant.
However, technology won't be able to duplicate the astrolabe’s simplicity and the fact that anyone and everyone could actually create one using straws and other home made materials.
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