How sailor going from Venice to Athens in the ancient time knew to navigate EXCTALY to the port location?
I can understand general direction by stars or even a compass but to navigate to a very specific location is other problem as I see it.
I did some foot navigation and to get to a specific point of very different then a general direction and you can’t use just general direction. If you miss your journey even in 0.5 degree you will get in totally other coast and not to the port you aimed for.
It will be even a bigger problem on the ocean travels. The Portuguese ships going to South America. How the know to land exactly at the port of Mexico or other places.
In: 166
This route would not have been to difficult – as was pointed out – but in the oceanic sense – While Latitude ( N-S) is workable, Longitude requires knowing the time – since the earth is rotating, a Sextant observation needs to know what time it is….and this is why high precision timepieces became so valuable.
Latest Answers