3. Navigation

Find directions without compass

3d.
Demonstrate how to find directions during the day and at night without using a compass or an electronic device.

Navigators throughout history traveled across oceans and wilderness without electronic GPS units or magnetic compasses. Understanding how to use the sun, shadows, and stars gives you an infallible backup system whenever your gear is lost, damaged, or out of power.

Daytime: The Shadow-Stick Method

The movement of the sun across the southern sky (in the Northern Hemisphere) casts a shadow that moves from west to east across the ground.

  1. Set Up the Stick: Push a straight stick (2 to 3 feet long) vertically into level, bare ground in a sunny clearing.
  2. Mark the First Shadow: Place a small pebble or stick peg at the exact tip of the shadow. This first mark represents WEST.
  3. Wait for Shadow Movement: Wait 15 to 20 minutes while the sun moves across the sky. The shadow tip will shift and change length.
  4. Mark the Second Shadow: Place a second pebble or peg at the new tip of the shadow. This second mark represents EAST.
  5. Draw the East-West Line: Scratch a straight line on the ground connecting the two pegs. The first peg points west, and the second peg points east.
  6. Determine North and South: Stand perpendicular to the line with your left foot on the west peg and your right foot on the east peg. You are now facing True North, and South is directly behind you.
Overhead diagram of a stick pushed into level ground with two shadow-tip marks and the resulting east-west line drawn between them

Daytime: The Analog Watch Method (Northern Hemisphere)

If you have a traditional analog watch set to standard time:

  1. Hold the Watch Flat: Hold the watch level in your palm.
  2. Point Hour Hand at the Sun: Turn your body until the hour hand points directly toward the sun. (You can place a small twig on the crystal next to the hour hand; when the twig’s shadow falls directly along the hour hand, it is aligned with the sun).
  3. Bisect the Angle: Find the exact halfway point (angle bisector) between the hour hand and the 12 o’clock mark.
  4. Determine North-South: That bisecting line points due South. True North is in the exact opposite direction.
    • Daylight Saving Time note: If on Daylight Saving Time (summer), bisect the angle between the hour hand and the 1 o’clock mark instead of 12.

Nighttime: The North Star (Polaris) Method

In the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris (the North Star) sits almost directly above the Earth’s true geographic North Pole. Unlike other stars that appear to move across the sky during the night, Polaris remains virtually stationary.

  1. Locate Ursa Major (The Big Dipper / Great Bear): Look for the prominent group of seven bright stars shaped like a bowl with a long, bent handle.
  2. Find the Pointer Stars: Locate the two stars that form the outer edge of the Dipper’s bowl—Merak (bottom) and Dubhe (top rim).
  3. Trace the Sighting Line: Draw an imaginary line from Merak through Dubhe and extend it outward approximately five times the distance between them.
  4. Identify Polaris: The line leads directly to a moderately bright star—Polaris. Polaris marks the end of the handle of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor).
  5. Find True North: When you look directly at Polaris, you are facing True North.
Night sky diagram showing the Big Dipper's pointer stars Merak and Dubhe leading to Polaris in the Little Dipper

Other Constellation Clues

  • Cassiopeia: The constellation shaped like a “W” or “M” sits directly across Polaris from the Big Dipper. If the Big Dipper is low on the horizon or hidden behind trees, Cassiopeia helps verify Polaris.
  • Orion: During winter, the bright constellation Orion rises in the east and sets in the west. The right-hand star of Orion’s three-star belt (Mintaka) rises almost due east and sets almost due west.