In an exclusive telephone interview with SPACE.com Wednesday, the 64-year-old described how he used the software to help solidify his theory. SPACE.com publishes starry Night.
As key evidence for a voyage that will remake history if the theory proves out, Menzies says he obtained ancient Chinese navigation charts associated with the travels of Zheng He, an admiral in the emperor's Navy. The journey ran from 1421 to 1423. Menzies maintains that the ships sailed around the Southern tips of both Africa and South America.
"I set Starry Night up for dates in 1421 for parts of the world where I thought the Chinese had sailed," explained Menzies, a navigation expert and former Royal Navy submarine commander. He found that in two separate locations of the voyage, easily recognizable stars were directly above Zheng He's fleet.
Those stars have since moved, due to changes in Earth's orientation in space. Earth's spin is slightly imperfect, and its axis carves a circle on the sky every 26,000 years. The phenomenon, called precession, means that each pole points to different stars as time progresses. Menzies used the software program to recreate the sky as it would have looked in 1421.
"I had Chinese star charts, and I needed to date the charts," he said. "By an incredible bit of luck, one of the courses they steered, between Sumatra and Dondra Head, Ceylon, was due west."
This part of the journey was very near the equator in the Indian Ocean. Both Polaris, the North Star, and the bright southern star Canopus, which was very nearly above the celestial south pole, were on the charts. "From that I was able to determine the apparent shift of Polaris (due to precession). I could therefore date the chart to 1421, plus or minus 30 years."
A scientific review of Menzies' research is not possible given the limited information being released. Phillip Sadler, a celestial navigation expert at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, says the estimation of a map's age based on star positions is possible. He said an estimate within 30 years, as Menzies claims, is possible.
"It depends on how accurately a chart is drawn," Sadler said.
A puzzling rose
On another chart whose coastlines Menzies said he could firmly place, the Chinese had drawn a rose. Menzies puzzled over its significance.
"I then went to Starry Night and set it up for 52 degrees, 40 minutes south latitude, between the Falkland Islands and Patagonia." He set the timeframe to December 1421.
"Lo and behold, Canopus was right above."
The Chinese voyagers had drawn a rose on a map half a world away from Beijing, Menzies said.
Another chart showed the two leading stars of the Southern Cross, a prominent constellation, pointing due south. From this, Menzies figures Zheng He's fleet, which numbered more than 100 ships when it set sail, was skirting the ice of Antarctica.
He also uncovered documents in which the Chinese describe a warm-water lagoon nestled in the ice. Such a lagoon exists nowadays at Deception Island.
So Menzies went back to his home computer to do a little more celestial archeology. Again, he instructed Starry Night to go back in time, to reconstruct the sky above Deception Island in late 1421.
"Lo and behold, the leading star of the Southern Cross was right above."
Logical analysis
Sadler, like other navigation experts and historians, is eager to learn the full details from Menzies' book, to learn whether history must be rewritten to relegate Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan to second place in their respective endeavors.
"There's a definite logic to his analysis," Sadler said of these latest details provided by Menzies. He added that the fact that Menzies had found celestial clues in multiple charts was a good sign. "The more stuff that fits, the better."
But Sadler wonders exactly what the ancient Chinese maps look like; a secret Menzies has no plans to release prior to the book's publication.
"Everybody is waiting to see what this guy produces," Sadler said.
Menzie's book will be published by Transworld Publishing and is expected out in hardback in the United States and the United Kingdom in September. A separate publisher will handle the U.S. distribution and has not yet been announced. Rights for other countries are being negotiated.
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