[douche]

Interesting. I've been reading the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, and besides looking up what in the world spotted-dog, calipash, staysails, the various and sundry varieties of vessels, or a Magellan jacket are, there's a fair amount of old-time celestial navigation throughout - the constantly documented daily ritual aboard ship is punctuated by the daily observation of noon, and comments on the nutation(?) of the planets... It's pretty amazing how well people were able to fix their positions with such primitive instruments.

I can pick out the Big Dipper at night, and figure out if I'm going east or west by the sun during the day, but that's pretty much the extent of it. I've never been out in the open sea, where I imagine you can actually see the stars well - the day-glo murk from the omnipresent streetlights blots out most of them if you are anywhere near civilization.