Watch Compass

[Scots_Charles_River]

I have been using the world clock and found that it also shows Azimuths for sunrise and sunset longest day 21/06/08 will put you about 41 degrees out at sunrise thats enough to get well lost. Usefull reference info.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=298&month=6&year=2008&obj=sun&afl=-1&day=1

Pothunter.

Will Smith used this in 'I am Legend' to check and set his watch for sunsets, to avoid Zombies !

Nick

 

[FerlasDave]

i have a timex compass watch and it does the trick for me. but i do know other methods of finding north too. i learned most of them from reading bear grylls book 'born survivor'.

by the way theyre not zombies in 'i am legend' theyre just infected with a virus. (not rage either hehe.)

 

[pothunter]

Hi Dave, my wife says I get like that when the hay fever kicks in.

 

[david0607]

I teach Land Navigation on the Uniformed Public Services course (Level 2 unit), when explaining and demonstrating alternative methods for finding direction, no matter where I am there always seems to be moss all round the damn trees. With close inspection of the moss in these areas you can work out the best growth for direction finding, but its definatly not a true statement in as far as what side of the tree the moss grows.

 

[robwolf]

moss grows on all sides of the tree it all depends on how dark the woods are this particular survival trick was made up for a war film and people belived it.

 

[Gray]

The stick and shadow method for me, even gives you time for a brew lol

Gray

 

[Diligence]

lol - this is exactly how my wife and I navigated our way from Heathrow (while driving on the wrong side) onto some jumble of A, B, C,and X,Y,Z motorways!!!.

Diligence, "do I take the next left dear?"
Mrs. D:..."there are four lefts, this is a traffic circle!!!"
Diligence: "..okay then, do I go north or northwest?"
Mrs. D..."which way is north?"
.....and lo and behold, the wrist watch navigation field trials (whilst driving far too fast on the wrong side of the road, shifting gears left handed) experiment was born!

D

 

[ForgeCorvus]

Easy to test in theory - however, a bit more tricky in practice since we don't have featureless flat plains and predictable sunshine in the UK. Also, a twenty minute walk is really neither here nor there, and wouldn't provide enough of a test to put bushcraftbob's original question properly to bed, imho.

So, you've not been to my part of the country then?
The Fens are about as flat as you can get (I'll give you the sunshine thing though )

Mind you, navigating by church towers is an art form round here

 

[hog]

what if its not sunny what you gonner do to find dirrection no compass or GPS there are ways lets see who knows

Dont cows face East- West... apparently.

 

[Armleywhite]

The watch method is not an exact science and isn't supposed to be. It's merely an indication of a general direction. Keep following South or even work out the general direction of the other points and it could help save your life.

 

[Praetorian]

I've known about this method since I was about 8 years old. Learnt it from a Dad's Army episode, think it was Cpl Jones' suggestion when they were lost in the sea mist in a rowing boat.....

 

[ol smokey]

If you do not have a watch with you and the sun is shining, what to do is stick a twig or pole in the ground as upright as possible and mark the spot where the shadow ends, wait
for an hour and mark the end of the shadow where it is now. A line drawn between these two points will run true east and west. So North and South are going to be at right angles to this line. Great if you are not in a hurry, and not in Scotland like me where the sun only
stays out for twenty minutes at a time.

 

[Tadpole]

If you do not have a watch with you and the sun is shining, what to do is stick a twig or pole in the ground as upright as possible and mark the spot where the shadow ends, wait
for an hour and mark the end of the shadow where it is now. A line drawn between these two points will run true east and west. So North and South are going to be at right angles to this line. Great if you are not in a hurry, and not in Scotland like me where the sun only
stays out for twenty minutes at a time.

No, they be roughly east'ish or west'ish. Not 'accurate' or true anything, and it depends on knowing several things, like real local time, solar noon, the magnetic declination of where you are. Knowing all these things you can use the stick in the ground to roughly point east west. (give or take 2 to 10 degrees) Only on two days a year does the sun rise in the east and set in the west.
If you want to know where you are, either keep a compass with you, or keep a compass and a spare, or use the position of the rising/seting sun, a sun compass, and a calander to show you where the sun rises and sets.


If you look at the image you will see that on the 27th June the sun will rise at 49 degrees from north and set at 311 degrees.
that day 27th JUne will be 16 1/2 hours long and solar noon will be 73 minutes after apparent noon.

Solar compasses are easy to make, don't weigh much and don't take up to much room in a pocket book or note pad.
If you take photographs a suncompass is great to have as it shows you roughly where the sun rises and sets. They are handy if you are lost, to check the accuracy of the stick in the ground. and with a bit more effort than I have shown can also help you to tell the time, or at least the time of solar noom.

 

[Gray]

magnetise a small piece of metal (by rubbing it against a cloth like silk ) like a watch hand, needle or a pin etc, place it on a leaf and float it. points north

 

[Gray]

Use the stars