The southern Milky Way, with the Southern Cross, left, and Matariki, lower right.
The southern Milky Way, with the Southern Cross, left, and Matariki, lower right.
Northlanders have always looked up to the stars and Matariki is a great opportunity to reflect on this centuries-long tradition, as Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga observes.
Stargazing has been at the heart of own Northland's journey.
Early Polynesian voyagers arriving in Aotearoa had mastered blue-water sailing and celestial navigation,which enabled them to sail around the Pacific with great accuracy and settle islands over centuries.
"The stars played a central role in the discovery and settlement of Aotearoa-New Zealand, and for Māori – descendants of those Polynesian settlers – Matariki was a time to acknowledge their celestial connection by remembering the dead, celebrating new life and planting new crops," says Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Northland manager Bill Edwards.
"Navigating by the stars and other natural phenomena led people to New Zealand in about the 13th century, and enabled sustained and organised migration to take place."
By following rising and setting stars over the horizon, the 'star path' allowed people to navigate around the Pacific.
"As an example, if you were navigating to Aotearoa from eastern Polynesia, then Meremere [Venus] would replace the sun as a guide in the night sky. When Venus dropped over the horizon then Autahi [Canopus] served as a guiding mark; near the prow of the waka as Rehua [Antares] dropped into the sea, then Puanga [Rigel] was at a bearing to Tautoru [Orion's Belt]," Edwards said.
"During the day, swell and wind would orientate the navigator, then as the sun set west, the navigator – with their star path knowledge – could navigate the star-studded sky. With profound knowledge, aided with karakia, this meant that these master navigators came to Aotearoa, the last part of the globe to be inhabited by human beings – a stunning achievement."
This is thought to be Captain James Cook's sextant.
That deep interest in the stars continued with the arrival of Pākehā in the latter years of the 18th century, as the celestial bodies still played a central role in exploration.
"Captain James Cook and his crew carried out astronomical experiments with the recording of the transit of Venus in Tahiti, and Transit of Mercury in Aotearoa," Edwards said.
"Cook's astronomical observations around the world improved the science of navigation. As a result of his voyages, for example, Ship Cove in the South Island was one of the most precisely measured places in the world – even more so than Greenwich itself, home of the Royal Observatory, as latitude and longitude calculations were refined."
Evidence of the legacy of knowledge that generations of scientists, voyagers and mathematicians had discovered and passed on can be seen in a hand-painted illustration of Kororareka–Russell made by Thomas Clayton in 1845.
Kororareka in the Bay of Islands, sketched March 10, 1845, on the morning before the assault on the town by Hone Heke, by Captain George Thomas Clayton.
"Kororareka-Russell was known around the world for its debauchery and excesses, courtesy of constant patronage from the Pacific whaling fleet. Besides drunkenness and what one commentator described as "scenes of intemperance that are of hourly occurrence [and] beyond measure disgusting", it also had another claim to fame.
"Kororareka had its own observatory – the first permanent celestial observatory in New Zealand."
Astronomy may appear to be a little bookish compared to other interests on offer at Kororareka at the time, though there was a very good commercial reason for its presence.
Observatory owner William Robertson provided a service that was appreciated by visiting whalers every bit as much as those provided by Kororareka's other entrepreneurs.
According to Russell-based researcher and whaling expert Lindsay Alexander, Robertson enabled accurate navigation.
"Sailors using a sextant could determine their latitude relatively easily by taking a sight at exact local noon, also known as the 'noon sight'. Longitude was a different matter however," Alexander said.
"Before a method of accurately determining longitude was developed, ships - if they could – sailed to the required latitude and then ran across the latitude to their destination. For many, that was a rather haphazard way of navigating."
The mystery behind accurately and consistently calculating longitude was cracked at last with the invention of a precise, workable chronometer by John Harrison in 1761– a highly accurate clock which was set to Prime Meridian, or Greenwich Mean Time, at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in London.
With two accurate time pieces – one calibrated to Greenwich Mean Time, and the other calibrated to local time – it became relatively easy to calculate longitude using the difference between the two times.
"Accuracy in time-keeping was crucial as every minute out from Greenwich Mean Time meant an error of a whopping 15 minutes of longitude. That's why the invention of the ship's chronometer revolutionised navigation," Alexander said.
William Robertson, of the rather grandly named Kororareka Observatory, used his own astronomical observations from his home-based observatory to determine the error of chronometers on the ships that called into the bay.
With his telescope sighted north, Robinson observed the precise time of the sun's zenith, then by consulting tables and knowing the Kororareka-Russell longitude, he was able to determine exactly Greenwich Mean Time. Visiting captains could then calibrate their chronometers from this single reliable source ensuring accurate navigation.
★ Matariki is the Māori name for a cluster of stars visible in the night sky for a large part of the year. This year, from June 25 to 28, Matariki will re-appear in the dawn sky to the northeast, signalling the start of the Māori New Year. Also known as The Seven Sisters, Pleiades, Messier 45 and Subaru, when Matariki disappeared in April/May, Māori knew it was time to preserve crops for the winter season. When the constellation appeared again in mid-winter, it was greeted with celebration.
