Talk:Lodestar

Mike Pence
Should this wiki article also link to Mike Pence, regarding his apetite for this particular word? 82.21.133.132 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 18:43, 7 September 2018 (UTC)
 * No. power~enwiki ( π, ν ) 18:47, 7 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I think he typically uses the word metaphorically, in reference to a guiding principle or a guiding person to be followed. There is no single "guiding star" in navigation; see list of selected stars for navigation. Perhaps there is a hint of religion in this use of the term, as the Star of Bethlehem might also be considered to be a "lodestar". wbm1058 (talk) 18:23, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
 * See What does lodestar mean? on Quora. wbm1058 (talk) 18:34, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Usage of "Lodestar" in Navigation
There is no reference to Lodestar in any work of navigation or navigation instruction, or any contemporary usage outside works of fiction or history.

There are several reference works in the public domain with full text available online. For example, a well known standard, Bowditch, can be source checked here. This is a reference that has served professional navigators for at least 200 years. Similar examples are plentiful.


 * First 1802 edition at archive.org
 * 2002 edition at Wikisource

This would be a fair example of Wikipedia creating a self perpetuating myth, to the extent that an anonymous American Congress person felt the veracity sufficient to edit Celestial navigation to include an archaic Lodestar reference as current.

Ssaco (talk) 14:21, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Good point. I don't have any special knowledge of this topic, but I just repeated what had already been stated in the lead section, which is supposed to summarize the contents of the more detailed sections like this. – wbm1058 (talk) 16:20, 24 September 2018 (UTC)