Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

=== Shape of the Earth ===
{{further|Myth of the flat Earth}}
[[File:Faro colon.jpg|thumb|[[Columbus Lighthouse]], a Museum and [[Mausoleum]] in homage to Christopher Columbus in [[Santo Domingo]]]]

Washington Irving's 1828 biography of Columbus popularized the idea that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because many Catholic theologians insisted that the [[Flat Earth|Earth was flat]],<ref name="book3">{{cite book |last=Boller |first=Paul F. |url=https://archive.org/details/notsopopularmyth00boll |title=Not So!: Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-19-509186-1}}</ref> but this is a popular misconception which can be traced back to 17th-century Protestants campaigning against Catholicism.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hannam |first=James |date=18 May 2010 |title=Science Versus Christianity? |url=https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2010/05/science-versus-christianity |access-date=5 September 2020 |website=[[Patheos.com]]}}</ref> In fact, the spherical shape of the Earth had been known to scholars since antiquity, and was common knowledge among sailors, including Columbus.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|p=244}} Coincidentally, the oldest surviving globe of the Earth, the [[Erdapfel]], was made in 1492, just before Columbus's return to Europe from his first voyage. As such it contains no sign of the Americas and yet demonstrates the common belief in a spherical Earth.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Jeffrey Burton |last=Russell |title=Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and modern historians |date=1991 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-275-95904-3 |location=New York |author-link=Jeffrey Burton Russell}}</ref>

In 1492, Columbus correctly measured [[Polaris]]'s [[diurnal motion]] around [[true north]] as having a diameter of almost 7°.{{Sfn|Morison|1942a|pp=241–242, 270–271}} In 1498, while sailing west through the [[doldrums]] 8° north in July and again in August sailing the trade winds 13° north, Columbus reported seeing Polaris with a diurnal motion of 10° in diameter. He accounted for the shift by concluding that Earth's [[Figure of the Earth#Pear shape|figure is pear-shaped]], with the 'stalk' portion (comparing this to a woman's [[breast]]) being nearest Heaven and upon which was centered the Earthly Paradise.<ref name="Randles2011">{{cite book |last1=Randles |first1=W. G. L. |title=European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-11-087024-4 |editor1-last=Haase |editor1-first=Wolfgang |chapter=Classical Geography and Discovery of America |editor2-last=Meyer |editor2-first=Reinhold |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cP3XT_vYgxsC&pg=PA48}}</ref>{{Sfn|Morison|1942b|pp=513–515, 517, 544–546}}<ref name="Willingham2015">{{cite book |last1=Willingham |first1=Elizabeth Moore |title=Mythical Indies and Columbus's Apocalyptic Letter: Imagining the Americas in the Late Middle Ages |year=2015 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78284-037-4 |page=293 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1-VEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT293}}</ref> Although Columbus's later readings were incorrect, 20th-century satellite data happens to indicate that the Earth has a slight pear shape.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tyson |first=Neil deGrasse |author-link=Neil deGrasse Tyson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0co_UQgNXacC&pg=PA52 |title=Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-393-06224-3 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=52 |oclc=70265574 |orig-date=2007}}</ref><ref>O'Keefe, J. A., Eckeis, A., and Squires, R. K. (1959). "Vanguard Measurements Give Pear-Shaped Component of Earth's Figure". ''Science'', 129 (3348), 565–566. {{DOI|10.1126/science.129.3348.565}}.</ref><ref>{{cite report |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA142764 |title=Geodesy for the Layman |author=Defense Mapping Agency |date=1983 |publisher=United States Air Force |edition=4th}}</ref>