Can You Tell North by Usuing the Sun and Your Watch

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If you ever find yourself lost in the wilderness or adrift at ocean with no way to tell which direction you're traveling, an analog lookout (or any like clock face) can human activity equally a compass and assistance y'all get your bearings. All you'll need for this survival flim-flam is an analog (not digital) clock or watch that's set to the correct time and a clear view of the sun. Come across Stride 1 below to go started.

1. 1

   Hold the watch horizontally. This trick can be used anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere during the mean solar day, when the sunday is visible. Lay the watch flat and confront-up in your palm so that its face is parallel with the basis.

2. 2

   Betoken the hour mitt in the management of the sun. Turn the watch, your mitt, or your entire body so that the hr hand of your scout is pointing direct at the sun. The time on the scout doesn't matter, as long as it's accurate.

   • If you're having a hard time lining the hour manus up with the sun exactly, you may want to use a narrow object's shadow to help you. Stick a twig or narrow post into the basis so that the shadow it casts is clearly visible. Then, line the shadow up with the hour hand of your watch. An object's shadow is cast away from the sun, and so lining your hour manus upwards with a narrow shadow is essentially the same equally lining information technology upwardly with the lord's day itself.

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3. three

   Bisect the angle betwixt the hr manus and the 12 o'clock mark to find South. This is the catchy role. Find the center point of the angle between your hour hand and the 12 o'clock mark on your watch. Earlier apex, you'll have to measure clockwise from your hour hand to the 12 o'clock marking, while afternoon, you lot'll have to mensurate counterclockwise from your hour hand to the 12 o'clock marking. The middle betoken between the 2 marks South, while the bespeak directly across from it marks North.

   • For example, if it's exactly v o'clock in the afternoon and you've lined upwards your hr mitt with the sun, Southward is the direction exactly between the two and 3 o'clock marks and North is the spot beyond from this point (exactly between 8 and ix).
   • Notation that during Daylight Saving Time, your watch is most likely i hour "off" from the "real" time. If this is the case, substitute 1 o'clock for 12 o'clock before finding your North-South line.

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1. 1

   Hold the watch horizontal. As in the Northern Hemisphere, you should have off your scout and lay it flat in your hand when you're in a location where y'all're able to see the dominicus.

2. 2

   Point twelve o'clock in the direction of the lord's day. The cardinal deviation betwixt the Northern and Southern Hemispheres when it comes to using a sentinel as a compass is that in the Southern Hemisphere, it'due south the 12 o'clock mark, rather than the 60 minutes manus that you lot must line upwards with the sun. Reversing the orientation of your watch relative to the lord's day allows you to business relationship for the difference in the sun's orientation between the ii hemispheres.

   • If you're having a difficult time getting a dewdrop on the sun, you tin can apply the same shadow trick as in the Northern Hemisphere to ensure your 12 o'clock marking is precisely lined up.

3. 3

   Bisect the angle between the hr manus and the twelve o'clock mark to find North. The exact middle of the angle between the 12 o'clock marker and the 60 minutes hand on your scout marks North, while the point directly beyond the face of the watch from it marks South.

   • For example, if it's 9 o'clock in the forenoon and we line the 12 o'clock mark on our lookout upwards with the sun, the midpoint betwixt the x and eleven o'clock markings is North and the bespeak across from this (between the 4 and 5 o'clock markings) is South.
   • If your spotter is set to Daylight Saving Fourth dimension, use the ane o'clock marking on your sentry as your criterion, rather than the 12 o'clock mark, equally you would in the Northern Hemisphere.

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1. 1

   Use a map to detect your hemisphere at dwelling house. The makeshift watch compass described in this article uses the position of the sun in the sky to determine North and South. Because the sun is in a different part of the sky in the Northern Hemisphere (the part of the earth due north of the equator) than it is in the Southern Hemisphere (the part of the earth south of the equator), it's important to account for this difference to ensure your compass is accurate. It's unremarkably easy to tell whether y'all're in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere simply past virtue of knowing what land you lot're in (for example, The Southern Hemisphere includes most of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia). If y'all're at abode (or otherwise near civilization), utilise a map, a earth, or an online geographical resource to find your position relative to the equator.

2. ii

   Use the North Star to find your hemisphere in the wilderness. If you're truly lost - for example, in a life raft in the centre of the ocean, you may not have access to maps, encyclopedias, or the internet. Luckily, if you're deep in the wilderness and you don't know which hemisphere yous're in, you can still make up one's mind whether you're in the Northern or Southern hemisphere past searching for Polaris, the North Star, in the night sky. This star is visible from the Northern Hemisphere, only if you lot're even slightly below the equator in the Southern Hemisphere, you won't be able to to see information technology.

   • Note that the lookout compass described in this article works best in the Autumn and Spring and can be inaccurate virtually the equator.^[1]

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Add New Question

• Question

  How exercise I conform my analog watch for Daylight Savings Time?

  

  In the spring, y'all motion your clock frontwards one 60 minutes. In the autumn, you lot move information technology dorsum ane hour.

• Question

  How do you locate the North Star?

  

  It's in the tail of the Little Dipper, if you lot tin find that. Another method would be to locate the Big Dipper -- the two stars farthest from its tail bespeak to the Due north Star.

• Question

  What should a person close to equator do (being betwixt hemispheres)?

  

  As long as you are due north of the equator, this method should piece of work.

• Question

  Do yous take to air current an analog watch?

  

  It depends on the sentry. Most mechanic ones need to exist wound in certain intervals. A lookout with a battery in information technology does not.

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• The farther abroad from the equator y'all are the more accurate your results volition exist, as the sunday will bandage a longer shadow.

• If you lot have a digital sentry, refer to the previous tip and quickly describe and employ a watch face, being conscientious to accurately draw to hourly digits in the correct placements. If needed, wait for a time which is quarter by or until, or on the hour or half.

• If it'due south cloudy or overcast find an open expanse every bit far from sun obstructions as possible and hold up a stick, branch, ruler, pole or other straight object. A slight shadow volition be cast in all but the worst weather condition.

• For best results set your watch to "truthful" local time, in other words without adjustments for daylight savings fourth dimension.

• You don't demand an bodily spotter, yous can draw a sentry confront on a piece of paper and the hack works just fine. It'southward cipher to do with the scout itself, but rather, knowing the time.

Thank you for submitting a tip for review!

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• The right agreement of how to use a map and compass should always be the outset priority in navigation if venturing into the unknown and potentially dangerous.

• A quick pull a fast one on like this is good simply do non rely on this data in life-critical situations.

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About This Article

Commodity Summary X

If you're in the Northern Hemisphere and you demand to use an analog watch as a compass, hold the scout flat and confront-up in your palm so it'south parallel with the ground. Turn the watch so the 60 minutes hand is pointing directly at the sun, then discover the eye bespeak of the bending between the hr hand and the 12:00 mark on the watch. The middle point marks South, and the point directly across from information technology is North. Before noon, measure out clockwise, or measure counter-clockwise if information technology's afternoon. Read on to learn how to read the compass if y'all're in the Southern Hemisphere.

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