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Originally Posted by Daigoro
Well, the Southern Cross's major axis points to the South Celestial Pole and is 4.5 spans of that axis away, so Antipodeans aren't left totally lost.
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There's also a dark nebula called "The Coal Sack" right next to the Southern Cross, which makes it even more obvious in a clear night sky which is relatively free of light pollution.
Additionally, there are several bright stars which can be used as "pointers". By drawing two imaginary lines from the stars in the southern cross to the pointers, you can get fairly close to finding the SCP just below the point where the imaginary lines cross. Once you know the trick, it's no harder than finding Polaris by following the line formed by the stars at the "end" of Ursa Major/Big Dipper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro
On a discworld, there is no horizon until the edge, so any major mountains would be visible from anywhere on the surface, with enough atmospheric visibility. They should make easy landmarks. If you have two visible reference mountains, triangulating to them will give your direction, then triangulating off their height will give your distance. Civilisations might have a grid of reference marker towers for the same effect.
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Cori Celesti is generally visible from flat areas on the Disc. Additionally, currents, winds, and light follow somewhat predictable patterns as the Disc spins. It might be possible to determine relative distance to Hubward by observing how the light flows
In later Discworld books, Clacks towers might make handy landmarks in relatively civilized regions.