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Is there a North in space?
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Yes Polaris is the north star. consider this.
How did old-time navigators use the heavenly bodies to guide their vessels? The rising and setting sun indicated east and west. At dawn, sailors could note how much the sun had shifted by comparing its position with the fading stars. At night, they could get their bearings from Polaris?the North Star?which appears to be almost directly above the North Pole after dusk. Farther south, a bright constellation known as the Southern Cross helped them to locate the South Pole. So on a clear night, sailors on all seas could check their heading by means of at least one celestial reference.
But these were not the only astral guideposts. The Polynesians and other seafarers of the Pacific, for instance, could read the night sky like a road map. One of their techniques involved setting a course toward a star that they knew rose or set on the horizon in the direction of their goal. Throughout the night, these navigators also checked other star alignments to make sure that they were on course. If their heading was wrong, the heavens showed them how to correct it.
How reliable was this system? At a time when European sailors often clung to shore in fear of plunging off the edge of a flat earth, Pacific mariners were apparently making long mid-ocean crossings between relatively tiny islets. For example, more than 1,500 years ago, Polynesians left the Marquesas Islands and headed north across the vast Pacific Ocean. By the time they went ashore in Hawaii, they had journeyed 2,300?miles [3,700?km]! Island folklore tells of ancient Polynesian voyages back and forth between Hawaii and Tahiti. Some historians say that these accounts are mere legends. Nevertheless, modern-day seafarers have repeated that voyage, navigating by the stars, ocean swells, and other natural phenomena?without instruments.
Riding the Wind
Sailing ships were at the mercy of the winds. A breeze from behind moved a vessel along quite nicely, but a head wind slowed the boat considerably. No wind, as was often experienced in the doldrums?the region around the equator?meant no progress. In time, sailors discovered prevailing ocean winds that helped establish highways for sailing ships on the high seas. Navigators made good use of these winds.
Of course, if the winds were contrary, they could also bring misery and death. For example, when Da Gama set sail from Portugal to India?s fabled Malabar Coast in 1497, prevailing winds took him out into the South Atlantic and then carried him back southeastward and around Africa?s Cape of Good Hope. But in the Indian Ocean, he met the monsoons?winds that reverse direction seasonally. Early each year the summer monsoon rears up in the southwest part of the Indian Ocean, and for months it blows all that floats toward Asia. In late fall the winter monsoon takes over. Roaring in from the northeast, it blows back toward Africa. But Da Gama left India in August and soon faced unfavorable winds. Instead of the 23 days required for his eastward crossing, his return trip took nearly three months. Because of this delay, fresh food ran short, and he lost many of his men to scurvy.
Shrewd navigators on the Indian Ocean learned to check the calendar as well as the compass. Eastbound ships passing the Cape of Good Hope had to set out for India by early summer or risk waiting months for favorable winds. On the other hand, ships? captains departed India for Europe in late autumn to avoid battling the summer monsoon. Thus, the Indian Ocean route was like an alternating one-way street?marine traffic between Europe and India?s Malabar Coast often moved in just one direction at a time.
Navigation Sails Onward
Time passed, and the art of navigation eventually set a new course. Mechanical instruments began to reduce dependence upon the naked eye and guesswork. The astrolabe and later the more accurate sextant?devices that determine the elevation of the sun or a star above the horizon?allowed mariners to find their latitude north or south of the equator. The marine chronometer?a reliable, seaworthy clock?gave them the ability to determine longitude, their east or west position. These instruments were far more precise than dead reckoning.
Today, gyrocompasses indicate north without a magnetic needle. The Global Positioning System can indicate one?s exact location at the push of a few buttons. Electronic displays often replace paper charts. Yes, navigation has become an exact science. But all this advancement only increases our respect for the courage and skill of the ancient seafarers who guided their crafts through vast and empty seas with only their knowledge of water, sky, and wind.so yes there is a north in space!
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Larry if the planet were to shift its axis, would GSP automaticlly ajust it's settings to point north ? or would we have to get the ol' compass out ? Or is that not how the shifting Axis works ?
Wouldn't that just be north from earth? Thus assuming that earth is the center of the galaxy? Science proves otherwise
As herghost as already said, there is no 'north' in space. Space is a three dimensional area with no relevant direction in the sense of a magnetic direction which north represents on Earth. Polaris could provide a navigational pointer for a space traveller but it would in no way suggest north to that traveller it would simply be a point in space for him/her to aim their craft at.
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r u dat dumbe, evon stopid poepal noo dis...
ediat