Velificatio Velificatio Velificatio is a stylistic device used in ancient Roman art to frame a deity by means of a billowing garment. It represents "vigorous movement," an epiphany, or "the vault of heaven," often appearing with celestial, weather, or sea deities. It is characteristic of the iconography of the Aurae, the Breezes personified, and one of the elements which distinguish representations of Luna, the Roman goddess of the Moon, alluding to her astral course. A figure so framed is a velificans (plural velificantes). Not all deities are portrayed as "velificantes", but the device might be used to mark a member of
Celestial navigation one of 57 other navigational stars to track celestial positioning. Latitude was measured in the past either by measuring the altitude of the Sun at noon (the "noon sight"), or by measuring the altitudes of any other celestial body when crossing the meridian (reaching its maximum altitude when due north or south), and frequently by measuring the altitude of Polaris, the north star (assuming it is sufficiently visible above the horizon, which it is not in the Southern Hemisphere). Polaris always stays within 1 degree of the celestial north pole. If a navigator measures the angle to Polaris and finds