In the modern day, Hawaii holds a special reputation in astronomy as the site of some of the world's greatest observatories. The mountain of Mauna Kea houses a sprawling collection of 13 telescopes that are operated by 12 different countries, non-profit organizations, and scientific co-ops [1][2]. The peak of Mauna Kea is an ideal location to view the cosmos due to the high elevation, dry air, low light pollution, and the uniquely-shaped mountain itself that generates low turbulence from incoming trade winds [3]. However, astronomy has much deeper roots in Hawaiian tradition.
Stretching back to ancient Polynesian culture, the stars have been featured in a mythological or religious context; those familiar with the Disney movie Moana will recognize the name of the demi-god Maui, and what many Westerners know as the tail of the constellation Scorpius is identified as his fish-hook - the same fish-hook used to raise the islands of Hawaii from the ocean in that tradition. Additionally, the settling of the islands was only made possible through Polynesian astronomical navigation. Through a sophisticated study of the positions of stars and their movement through the sky, these people were able to cross vast amounts of ocean to hop between islands for resources and trade [4].
In order to navigate, a sequence of stars was memorized that would be used to align the bow and stern of the boat. It was understood that the paths that stars took through the night sky were parallel to one another, and the process of identifying where one would rise and set could be used to orient the ship when compared to the others [6]. It was also understood that at specific latitudes, certain stars would pass directly overhead, or would have identifiable characteristics - for example at the latitude corresponding to Hawaii, the top and bottom stars of the Southern Cross are about the same distance apart as the bottom star is from the horizon, providing an extremely useful reference. This knowledge was used in conjunction with an understanding of the natural orientation of trade winds and sea swells to hit relatively small collections of islands over distances in excess of 2500 miles [7].
If any readers are interested in looking through some supplementary information about traditional navigation, there is a large collection available at https://archive.hokulea.com. There are also two hosted .pdfs from this archive that do not appear to be directly accessible from the site, but can be found through search engines: Hawaiian Astronomical Concepts I and Hawaiian Astronomical Concepts II. The latter .pdfs include the wonderful figures above and contain a lot of interesting information about Hawaiian and Polynesian star names, mythology, and methods of observation. I encourage anyone curious about this subject to dig through those resources as there is quite a lot there to learn!
References:
[1] - Maunakea observatories. IfA Facilities. (2022, October 8). https://about.ifa.hawaii.edu/facility/mauna-kea-observatories/
[2] - An introduction to the 13 observatories on Mauna Kea. Big Island Guide. (2018, April 17). https://bigislandguide.com/introduction-mauna-kea-observatories
[3] - Maunakea is unique. Maunakea Observatories. (n.d.). https://www.maunakeaobservatories.org/maunakea-is-unique/
[4] - Origins of astronomy in hawai`i. About the IfA. (2021, December 10). https://about.ifa.hawaii.edu/origins-of-astronomy-in-hawaii/
[5] - Makemson, M. W. (n.d.). Hawaiian astronomical concepts. https://archive.hokulea.com/pdfs/Hawaiian_astronomy_I.pdf
[6] - Polynesian wayfinding. Hōkūleʻa. (2024, August 28). https://hokulea.com/polynesian-wayfinding/
[7] - Thompson, N. (2024, August 26). The star compass by Nainoa Thompson. Hōkūleʻa. https://hokulea.com/the-star-compass-by-nainoa-thompson/
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