Sun
Navigation Navigating
with your GPS is a cinch but not many will opt to take one on
most endeavors. You will have to make do with noticing the suns position in
relation to your direction of travel. For this reason novices or someone
who is disoriented, should not travel
during the time between 11:00AM and 2:00PM when the sun is high and much more
difficult to judge its position. How exactly do you use the sun for
bearing? I
will have to be elementary here as there are a number of people who do not look
up at the sun when questioning the time. That is what you will want to start
doing if you are considering wandering around God's back 40. Familiarize
yourself with where North, South, East and West are in the locations that you
will be spending your time leading up to this trip (Use a compass if necessary).
Then glance at the sun and watch whenever you can and make a mental note of where
the sun is in relationship to the directional compass points at different times of the
day. Take note on how quickly darkness come after the sun is a particular level
on the western horizon. You will soon get a grasp for knowing what time it is by
glancing at the sun and you will be able to amaze your friend with the degree of
accuracy. However we will save the parlor tricks for some other location on this
site. What we are interested in, is where is the sun located at a particular time
and presuming you will have a watch with you when you go, you will always know
what direction you are facing or heading. Seasons affect the position of the
sun. The further North you are, the more northerly the arc of the sun will be in the
months of May thru August and the
lower (to the South) in the months of November thru February. Nearer the tropics the north-south swing is less noticeable. Exactly
the opposite is true if you live South of the equator, that is regarding
the arc of the sun. Of course the points of the compass remain the same
regardless of where you are, with the exception of the magnetic deviation. Why go on
and on about the sun, well unless it burns out it will always be there and
nothing is more important to a recreational wilderness survivalist than to get
back out of the wild.
One last time. If you're are walking toward the sun in the
morning then your are heading East, toward the sun in the afternoon it's West
and it it is on your right hand side in the morning you are going South and if
on the right hand side in the afternoon you are now heading North. Using those
four scenarios you should be able to comprehend that the if the opposite is true
at a given time then you are heading in the opposite direction at that
particular time. It is probably needless to say, but here it it is, in order to
return in the direction you came from, then the sun must be in an opposing
location for similar time of day than it was on the trip in. Dag nab it now I
am confused. You will get the drift of what was pointed out here and if
you don't then take a compass (See Making
a Compass) or better yet a GPS with a backtracking feature.
Visit our GPS Page and see our GPS
FAQs for the most commonly asked question regarding these fantastic
devices.
See our humorous "Cloud
Navigating" article.
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