Favorite Navigation tricks

Since we're on the topic on the GPS thread, I thought it might be
interesting to share some navigation tricks people have picked up in
their travels.

My favorite one is for finding a good approximation of direction using
the moon:
If the moon is visible (and is not full), then if you draw a line
through the 'points', that line will run very close to North-South.
You should mentally continue that line across the sky as if you were
drawing inside a bowl, and where it hits the horizon is North and
South. Similarly, if you draw the line bisecting the moon across the
'waist', THAT line runs east-west. Any extremely bright stars you see
on that E-W line will be planets.

--riverman

On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:49:33 -0800 (PST), riverman
wrote:

Since we're on the topic on the GPS thread, I thought it might be
interesting to share some navigation tricks people have picked up in
their travels.

My favorite one is for finding a good approximation of direction using
the moon:
If the moon is visible (and is not full), then if you draw a line
through the 'points', that line will run very close to North-South.
You should mentally continue that line across the sky as if you were
drawing inside a bowl, and where it hits the horizon is North and
South. Similarly, if you draw the line bisecting the moon across the
'waist', THAT line runs east-west. Any extremely bright stars you see
on that E-W line will be planets.

--riverman

d;o)

Yeah, and another is that the sun rises in the east and sets in the
west.

A friend and I went into the jungle in Panama without our topos and a
compass. No sweat. All we needed to do was find the sun about 6 or 7
pm, keep it on our right, and we would find our way back to the dirt
road where my truck was parked. Riiiiight! We had forgotten about
the triple canopy of the Panamanian jungle. There was light, but you
could not find the sun. We estimated where it was, but if we missed
the road, we would have at least a ten mile hike to the canal, or
about a five mile hike to the Chagres River. We estimated we were
three miles from the road when it was time to leave. We finally found
our way out by the sound of an occasional truck on the dirt road.
What should have taken an hour took more than two. You don't wanna be
in the jungle at night without a flashlight. We never went again
without one *and* a good topo map.

Dave

On Feb 24, 8:38*pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:49:33 -0800 (PST), riverman





wrote:
Since we're on the topic on the GPS thread, I thought it might be
interesting to share some navigation tricks people have picked up in
their travels.

My favorite one is for finding a good approximation of direction using
the moon:
If the moon is visible (and is not full), then if you draw a line
through the 'points', that line will run very close to North-South.
You should mentally continue that line across the sky as if you were
drawing inside a bowl, and where it hits the horizon is North and
South. Similarly, if you draw the line bisecting the moon across the
'waist', THAT line runs east-west. Any extremely bright stars you see
on that E-W line will be planets.

--riverman

d;o)

Yeah, and another is that the sun rises in the east and sets in the
west. *

A friend and I went into the jungle in Panama without our topos and a
compass. *No sweat. *All we needed to do was find the sun about 6 or 7
pm, keep it on our right, and we would find our way back to the dirt
road where my truck was parked. *Riiiiight! *We had forgotten about
the triple canopy of the Panamanian jungle. *There was light, but you
could not find the sun. *We estimated where it was, but if we missed
the road, we would have at least a ten mile hike to the canal, or
about a five mile hike to the Chagres River. *We estimated we were
three miles from the road when it was time to leave. *We finally found
our way out by the sound of an occasional truck on the dirt road.
What should have taken an hour took more than two. *You don't wanna be
in the jungle at night without a flashlight. *We never went again
without one *and* a good topo map.

Dave- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, then there's those 'real life' factors. :-)

You mention a good point, and another one of my favorite navigation
tricks. The sun is due west EVERYWHERE in the world at 6pm (give or
take a little for daylight savings time, and where you are in the time
zone). In the summer, that means the sun is above the horizon at 6,
and for many places it has already set by 6, but nonetheless...at 6pm
its due west and at 6am its due east.

That makes it very easy to tell direction if you know the time. If its
due west at 6pm, and due south at noon, then if its 3pm, the sun will
be in the SW, etc. There is a handy trick for finding direction using
the hands of an analog watch, but many people have digital watches, so
this method is useful.

But of course, you gotta be able to see the sun...

--riverman

On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:45:27 -0800 (PST), riverman
wrote:

But of course, you gotta be able to see the sun...

Welll.......duh! Never go in the jungle without one. d;o)

The jungles in Panama really are remarkable. Leaf cutter ants all
over the place, coatamundis, sloths, jaguarundis (and jaguars, tho I
never saw one), all the snakes you could ever want from boa
constrictors, to fer de lance and bushmasters, wasps that hide on the
underside of the leaves of one plant (found them the hard way), fire
ants that live in the hollow trunk and branches of a bush and attack
anything that touches the bush (also discovered the hard way), and
even caiman in Gatun Lake near National Geographic"s Boro Colorado
Island and howler monkeys that scare the hell out of me. Frank should
never go into the jungles of Panama (or any jungle, ftm).

Dave

On Feb 24, 9:05 pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:

coatamundis

Saw one of those here in NM last spring...cool.

Jon.

On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:27:12 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Feb 24, 9:05 pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:

coatamundis

Saw one of those here in NM last spring...cool.

Jon.

Very cool. I believe that jaguars were once found as far north as NM.
I saw a dead one, killed by farmers and hanging like we would hang a
deer. Big cat!

Dave

On Feb 25, 6:06 am, Dave LaCourse wrote:

Very cool. I believe that jaguars were once found as far north as NM.

Actually, that would be "they are again". Over the last ten years
multiple cats have been sighted in the bootheel area. Easy to find on
google. Warner Glen snapped the first picture back in the late 90s.

Jon.

On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:38:47 -0800, jcook wrote:


Actually, that would be "they are again". Over the last ten years
multiple cats have been sighted in the bootheel area. Easy to find on
google. Warner Glen snapped the first picture back in the late 90s.

Yeah, but interestingly, the US-Mexican border barrier is expected to
bring about their demise. Not only will it keep out illegals, it will
restrict a healthy gene pool in the Jaguars.

In article , Dave LaCourse
writes
On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:45:27 -0800 (PST), riverman
wrote:

But of course, you gotta be able to see the sun...

Welll.......duh! Never go in the jungle without one. d;o)

The jungles in Panama really are remarkable. Leaf cutter ants all
over the place, coatamundis, sloths, jaguarundis (and jaguars, tho I
never saw one), all the snakes you could ever want from boa
constrictors, to fer de lance and bushmasters, wasps that hide on the
underside of the leaves of one plant (found them the hard way), fire
ants that live in the hollow trunk and branches of a bush and attack
anything that touches the bush (also discovered the hard way), and
even caiman in Gatun Lake near National Geographic"s Boro Colorado
Island and howler monkeys that scare the hell out of me. Frank should
never go into the jungles of Panama (or any jungle, ftm).

Dave



Ah well! I don't think I'll bother.


--
Bill Grey