A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
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star compass
A star compass is a navigational system in which the horizon is divided into named points by the stars that rise and set at each, and a course is held by steering at the star occupying that point. As one star climbs too high to use, the next in the sequence rises behind it and takes over, so a single bearing is kept all night by a succession of stars. It is the core of Pacific voyaging navigation and it requires no instrument at all.
Etymology
The English term is a translation offered for systems that have their own names and their own star lists in the languages that use them. The Carolinian system of the central Pacific divides the horizon into thirty-two points; Hawaiian and Māori traditions use their own divisions and their own names, and the sets are not interchangeable between islands.
Notes
The system works because a star always rises and sets at the same point on the horizon from a given latitude, regardless of the season or the hour. It is combined with reading swell direction, cloud color over land, the flight lines of birds at dawn and dusk, and phosphorescence at depth. Star path, stick chart, and etak cover other parts of the same body of practice.