The Webinar on Sailing with the Stars took place on Thursday, May 7th, 2026 from 5 pm until 6 pm, with Carlota Simões, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, as our invited speaker. This virtual event was free and open to the general public.
The speaker commented on how in the 16th century, Portuguese and Spanish sailors kept regular routes between Europe, Asia and America, using only the Sun and the stars as their guide. Carlota Simões then explained how the latitude was determined easily by observing the Polar Star in the North hemisphere, the Cross of the South in the South hemisphere or the Sun on its meridian transit to the North and South of the Equator. The speaker also described the types of calculations that were done on board that helped determine their position in the high seas only by observing the celestial bodies.
