Prehistory. 1  Chang, Kwang-chih. 2  Discovery of residue from fermented beverage consumed up to 9,000 years ago in Jiahu, Henan Province, China. 3  Zhu, Rixiang; Zhisheng An; Richard Potts; Kenneth A. Hoffman. 4  The Discovery of Early Pottery in China by Zhang Chi, Department of Archaeology, Peking University, China.
There are a couple of popular ways of specifying the location of a celestial object. The first is what you would probably use to point out a star to your friend: the altitude-azimuth system. The altitude of a star is how many degrees above the horizon it is (anywhere from 0 to 90 degrees). The azimuth of a star is how many degrees along the horizon it is and corresponds to the compass direction. Azimuth starts from exactly North = 0 degrees azimuth and increases clockwise: exactly East = 90 degrees, exactly South = 180 degrees, exactly West = 270 degrees, and exactly North = 360 degrees = 0 degrees.
Polaris is called the north star because it is directly above Earth's north pole. So, if you find Polaris in the sky, that direction is north. Actually, Polaris is very close, but not exactly in line with the north pole. It is off by about 0.7 degrees. Polaris is called the north star because it is directly above Earth's north pole. So, if you find Polaris in the sky, that direction is north. <i>Actually, Polaris is very close, but not exactly in line with the north pole.