 |
| The author orienting himself by the Sun, on a very hot day, picture by the author |
Your car crashed in the
desert, or the bush plane you were in went down, you’re all alone and you don’t
have a compass. You know there are ways
to use the Sun to find north and south, but you don’t remember how. No problem you think, everybody knows, the
Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right? Right?
You, as the “misplaced”
wilderness adventurer, can use your knowledge of how the Sun travels through
the heavens to find your “orientation by
the sun”1, but the first thing to know is that the Sun doesn’t
always “…rise in the east and set in the west…”2. In fact, on only two days of the year, does
the Sun rise exactly in the east and set exactly in the west: these two days
are March 21st, the Spring Equinox, and September 23rd, the
Fall Equinox. On every other day of the
year, the Sun rises either south or north of true east and sets either north or
south of true west.
 |
Adapted from Survival:
Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, p. 41, Fig. 16, by the author
|
On both the Fall and
Spring Equinox, the Sun rises due east, directly over the equator, travels over
Indonesia, Ecuador, northern Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Kenya and other countries, and then sets due west.
Every day after the
Spring Equinox, the Sun will rise and set further and further to the north of
true east and west, until the Summer Solstice, on June 21st, when it
reaches its most northerly point, at 23 degrees, 27 minutes, north latitude or as
that line of latitude is called, Tropic of Cancer. On the Summer Solstice the Sun rises, almost,
at east-by-northeast and sets, close to, west-by-northwest3.
Every day after the
Summer Solstice, the Sun will rise and set further to the south, until on the
Fall Equinox, September 23rd, the Sun will again rise in the east and
set in the west, over the equator.
In the days after the
Fall Equinox, the Sun will continue to rise farther and farther to the south
until on the 21st of December, the Winter Solstice, the Sun will
rise and set at 23 degrees, 27 minutes south latitude, the Tropic of
Capricorn. On the Winter Solstice, the
sun rises and sets at its furthest point to the south, rising almost, at
east-by-southeast and setting near, west-by southwest4.
After the Winter
Solstice, the Sun will begin to rise more and more to the north, until the
Spring Equinox, when it rises and sets again, due east and west over the
equator.
Knowing at what compass
point the Sun rises and sets in it’s yearly journey, will help the “misplaced”
wilderness adventure to orient themselves.
If you were “misplaced” late in May and the Sun is rising, you know that
the direction of the rising Sun will be more east-by-northeast than east, and therefore
you can adjust your mental compass. Besides
the rising and setting of the Sun, there are some other facts about the Sun’s
journey that can help you determine the general compass points.
 |
From Outdoor Survival
Skills, p. 2-87. Author’s note, 23.4 degrees is the same as 23 degrees, 24
minutes.
|
If you are north of the Tropic
of Cancer (23 degrees, 27 minutes, north, latitude), which runs through Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, India southern China, Mexico, northern Cuba and the Bahamas, the
Sun will travel through the south of the sky during both the summer and winter. North of the Tropic of Cancer, from the Fall
Equinox to the Spring Equinox, the noon sun will be low enough in the sky for
you to tell easily, which direction is south.
On the Summer Solstice, if you are near the Tropic of Cancer, the noon
Sun will be nearly overhead.
If you are south of the
Tropic of Capricorn (23 degrees, 27 minutes, south, latitude), which runs
through Chile, southern Brazil, South Africa and Australia, the Sun will travel
through the north part of the sky during both the winter and the summer. South of the Tropic of Capricorn, from the
Spring Equinox until the Fall Equinox, the sun will be low enough in the
northern sky to tell which direction north is.
On the Winter Solstice, if you are near the Tropic of Capricorn, the
noon Sun will be almost overhead.
In the tropics, which lie
between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the Sun travels north
of the equator from the Spring Equinox to the Fall Equinox and south of the
equator from the Fall Equinox until the Spring Equinox.
I hope that this will
help you understand where the Sun is in its daily and yearly journey through
the sky, because the rising and the setting of the Sun, it’s travels, not to
mention its zenith at noon, can help you determine your direction. It is important to remember, however, that you
can only determine the general direction of north, south, east and west with
the Sun. What this all means to the
“misplaced” wilderness adventurer is, except on two very special days of the
year, you will only be able to find, “A
rough approximation to the direction of the true meridian [the north-south
line, Author’s note] for finding one’s
way by the aid of a map…within about 20 deg.”5: This should be good
enough for you to reorient yourself, in a general way. Nevertheless, if you plan to use the Sun to
determine your direction of travel, no matter how carefully you take into
consideration, where and when, the Sun rises and sets, you will have an error
in heading. For the “misplaced” wilderness
adventurer attempting to walk out, the “1 in 60” rule of thumb applies. This rule states that for every 1° error in
heading over one mile, you will be off track by about 88 feet or almost 30 yards,
and for an error in heading of 20° for every mile traveled, you will be off
track by a third of a mile, which is 1,760 feet or 587 yards6. A pro-tip for travelling in the wilderness,
when you don’t have a compass, is to note where the Sun strikes your face when
are looking in the direction that you want to travel, for example, right ear,
left ear, just above your right eye, right-side back of the head, etc. Make sure as you travel, that the Sun is
still striking you in the same spot and use this to help you maintain the same
heading, if you must travel a winding trail.
Bear in mind that the Sun moves throughout the day, hour-by-hour, so
re-orient yourself frequently. Over the
long trek, when you have only the Sun to orient yourself, you might find
yourself more lost than found and this is why you should always carry at least
one, but better yet, two compasses with you when you are in the wilderness. For more on the importance of having two
compasses with you when you travel in the wilderness see “Getting Lost And
What To Do About It”, Circa 1915” HERE.
 |
Always bring a compass;
even better bring two, when you go into the wilderness. Picture by the author
|
For more on finding your “orientation by the sun” and how to find
the points of the compass with either a traditional or digital watch, check
back next week for “How to Find Your Way Without a Compass, Part Two, The Watch
As A Compass”.
I hope that you continue
to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and my videos at BandanaMan Productions
and don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online and
subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and if you have questions, as
always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.
Notes
1 Stevens, E.E., “The Handy Compass”, Labor
Digest: A National Magazine for the Advocacy of Industrial Peace, p. 11
2 Airlines War Training Institute, Survival:
Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, [The Infantry Journal, Washington, D.C., 1944]
p. 41-42
3 East-by-northeast is 22.5 degrees north of
east and west-by-northwest is 22.5 degrees north of west, both are within one
degree of the Tropic of Cancer.
4 East-by-southeast and west-by southwest are
both south of the east-west line by 22.5 degrees and are close to the Tropic of
Capricorn.
5 Editor, “Truth”, No 718, Vol 28, [Bolt-court,
Fleet Street, London, Oct 2, 1890] p 656
6 Wikipedia
Contributors,
“1 in 60 rule”, “the
1 in 60 rule is a rule of thumb which states that if a pilot has travelled
sixty miles then an error in track of one mile is approximately a 1° error in
heading”
Sources
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Department of the
Airforce, Outdoor Survival Skills: How to Survive on Land, Sea and Ice!,
[Info Books, Toronto, Canada, 1980] p. 2-86
Craighead, Frank, Jr.,
Phd, and Craighead, John J., Phd., How to Survive on Land and Sea,
[United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD, 1956] p. 11
Editor, “The American
Architect And Building News”, Vol. XXX, No. 775, [Ticknor & Co Publishers,
Boston, MA November 1, 1890] p. 75 https://books.google.com/books?id=HYdMAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA75&dq=finding+south+with+a+watch&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyt5-xjZTjAhUjwFkKHen8Aio4hgMQ6AEIPDAE#v=onepage&q=finding%20south%20with%20a%20watch&f=false,
accessed 7/1/19
Editor, “Truth”, No 718,
Vol 28, [Bolt-court, Fleet Street, London, Oct 2, 1890] p 656 https://books.google.com/books?id=jEkxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA656&dq=finding+south+with+a+watch&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyt5-xjZTjAhUjwFkKHen8Aio4hgMQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q=finding%20south%20with%20a%20watch&f=false,
accessed 7/1/19
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Wheelwright,Vol. XXXVIII, No. [M. T. Richardson Company, New York, NY, July
1898] p. 124
Phin, John, “How A Watch
May Be Used As A Compass”, The Seven Follies of Science, [D. Van
Nostrand Company, New York, NY 1906] p. 134-135
Risk, Paul, H., Outdoor
Safety And Survival, [John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1983] p 284-285
Stevens, E.E., “The Handy
Compass”, Labor Digest: A National Magazine for the Advocacy of Industrial
Peace, Vol 3, [Minneapolis, MN, December 1910] p. 10-11
“Where Do the Sun and
Stars Rise?” [Stanford Solar Center, 2005] http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/sunrise.html,
accessed 9/8/18
Wikipedia Contributors, “1 in 60 rule”, [Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia, December
21, 2017], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_in_60_rule,
accessed 7/10/19
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