Hi,
I think the pommel of the sky refers to the celestial north pole, i.e.
where we see the Pole Star or Polaris.
Then, on the summer solstice hold a plumb line in front of you such that
it obscures the Pole Star, and find another circumpolar that is also
hidden by the plumbline. In the rest of the year, the angular
displacement of this second star tells you how far from midnight you
are, provided you make an adjustment of 1 hour per half month.
For the method to work, you need to have established midnight on the
summer solstice. This is done by fixing two plumb lines one behind the
other, so that they are aligned to the solstice's midday sun, i.e. they
show you the meridian. I think the text is saying that on the day of the
summer solstice, as the shepherd faces north looking through the plumb
lines, if Cancer is seen slightly to the east and Capricorn slightly to
the west, then it is midnight (presumably that's only in the British Isles).
I got this from a rather quick scan of the text, so I may have missed
something. There's also discussion of the learning the rising positions
of the signs of the zodiac but I don't quite follow how it relates to
the rest.
Steve
On 2022-03-03 10:11 a.m., Dan-George Uza wrote:
Hello,
In the "Kalendar and Compost of Shepherds" by Guy Marchant, an
illustrated work translated from French into English in the early
1500s, there is a chapter with the following title: "Shepherds
practise their quadrant at night as you see by the figure hereafter".
Could someone more versed in old English please explain how this
technique actually worked? I attach the relevant pages from the 1931
edition.
Thanks,
--
Dan-George Uza
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