Sailors used a compass or an astrolabe. a compass points North so you know your direction. an astrolabe can tell your location by using the sun as a reference point but you might need a star chart to use it. If you were traveling at night you would use the star char5t and the North Star to tell direction.
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The Navigational aids that explorers would have used included:
Astrolabes - calculating latitudes
Telescope - Hans Lippershey (c1570-c1619) credited with the invention. The telescope was introduced to astronomy in 1609 by Galileo Galilei
Charts and Maps - Cartography or map making was an important Renaissance skill
Compasses - Enabled Renaissance sea men to find their bearing in the fog
Cross-staffs - Used to measure the angle of the Sun or a star above the horizon
Nocturnals - Measuring and timekeeping instrument
Quadrants - Measuring and timekeeping instrument
Traverse boards - Navigation instrument - older version of Astrolabe
The Hour-glass, Minute-glass and Sun-dial - timekeeping instruments
Almanacs - which forecast precisely where the the sun, moon, planets and selected navigational stars, are going to be, hour by hour, years into the future
Spain
yes it did
Some time during the Stone Age
Spain, followed by the Portuguese and Dutch.
Colonization and conquest by Spanish conquistadors during the Age of Exploration.