Via lifehacker:
Don't believe that part about where Jupiter is. As far as I know, the planets move .... (which is why they are called planets, yes?)
Greg Laden's Blog
Evolution, Life Sciences, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff
Looking for stuff about birds?
Learn more about Charles Darwin and his work.
Lean more about lions
An archaeological expedition to the Congo
The Skeptical Search Engine
The contents of Greg Laden's Blog are copyrighted by Greg Laden.
Recent Comments
- Donald Iljazi on What is Markdown and why use it?
- freewebcoach.org on Changing the rep of Fungi one mushroom-based robot thingie-builder at a time
- Greg Laden on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Charles on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Greg Laden on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Greg Laden on Seismic Activity at Yellowstone
- Connie Davis on Who has a higher IQ, cats or dogs?
- lynda on Seismic Activity at Yellowstone
- lynda on Seismic Activity at Yellowstone
- Don Parnell on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
Search
Profile
Click on "About" for the big picture, and "Archives" for the details.
Recent Posts
- Looking for stuff about birds?
- Environmentally Friendly Hard Drive Case
- Charles Darwin February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882
- Whitney Houston has died
- Lions!
- Changing the rep of Fungi one mushroom-based robot thingie-builder at a time
- More Mississippi Meanderings
- Is climate change a leftist scientific conspiracy to destroy America?
- Oldest Animals Discovered in Namibia
- Wild Mississippi
Blogroll
If you don't see yourself on my blogroll, just drop me a line and let me know. I'll add you.*- 10,000 Birds
- Alpha Meme
- a Nadder!
- Angry by Choice
- Armchair Dissident
- (((Billy))) The Atheist
- blogfish
- blogSci
- Blond Nonbeliever
- Blue Lion Blog
- Bug Girl's Blog
- Camels with Hammers
- Catalogue of Oganisms
- Cassandra's Tears
- Class M Planet
- Cocktail Party Physics
- Counter Minds
- Cranky Linguist, The
- Crowded Head, Cozy Bed
- Dead Racist Society
- Deep Sea News
- Dispersal of Darwin
- Divine Afflatus
- Dread Tomato Addiction
- Evil is Underrated
- Evolved and Rational
- Evolving in Kansas
- Evolving Thoughts
- Fellman Studio Blog
- Flying Trilobite
- Further Thoughts
- Hoxful Monsters
- ICBS Everywhere
- Illusory Tenant
- It's Alive!!
- Jafcisa
- Letters from a Broad
- Life Before Death
- Looking For Detachment
- Matharu's Rants and Raves
- Mors dei
- Natural Reckonings
- Nature Blog Network
- Providentia
- Qeyḥ bāḥrī
- Quiche Moraine
- Religion, Sets, and Politics
- Sandwalk
- Sarah Zielinski
- Science Notes
- The Seething Primate
- Skepchick
- Spanish Inquisitor
- Splendid Elles
- Survival Machine
- Synapostasy
- TalkOrigins
- Tangled Up in Blue Guy
- Tetrapod Zoology
- The Flying Trilobite
- The Inoculated Mind
- The Intersection
- The Loom (new)
- The Scientific Activist
- The Unexamined Life..
- The Zone
- Thinking for Free
- Think Progress
- Three Toed Sloth
- Toomanytribbles
- Traumatized by Truth
- Truth Is a Woman
- udreamofjanie
- Uncommon Liberty
- View from the Pond
- Vickie Henderson Art
- When Pigs Fly Returns
- Writer's Daily Grind
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
« Don't forget to vote. Oh, and wear a wool sweater!!! | Main | A few political tidbits »
Navigate By The Stars
Category: Cosmos
Posted on: October 4, 2008 10:00 PM, by Greg Laden
Find more posts in: 
Physical Science
Physical ScienceTrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/82738
Comments
Another correction: Polaris is the way to find North, yes, but isn't even close to being the brightest star in the sky. That's Sirius. At least three stars in Orion (Betelgeuse, Rigel, and Bellatrix) are brighter than Polaris.
In fact, Polaris is listed 48th in this Wikipedia article.
Posted by: John Moeller | October 5, 2008 1:31 AM
This video is really bad; it reminds me of the kind of answers my astronomy students would give when they hadn't studied their notes. He says a bunch of stuff that's irrelevant to navigating by the stars (all the Orion stuff), making a bunch of mistakes on the way, then gives a confusing answer that he'll later argue is technically correct, at least if he's a pre-med.
The Jupiter bit is really garbled. Not only do the planets move, as Greg said, but the planets farther from the Sun than Earth, including Jupiter, don't show phases; the bright side is always facing toward the Earth (that is, toward the Sun.)
His method of finding North works, but is unnecessarily complicated. All you have to do to point north is stand up straight, and point yourself towards Polaris. That's north.
A real video on how to navigate by the stars would point out Polaris, but would also tell you about how to find your latitude by the ecliptic and your longitude by timing (for example) sunrise, and probably some other tricks I don't know about.
Posted by: chuko | October 5, 2008 2:41 AM