The Fall Equinox Isn't On September 21st? ©

 

Autumn in Minister Valley, Pennsylvania; photo by Kathleen Reynolds

In “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part One, Orientation By The Sun” (HERE), which I wrote earlier this year, and in “Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method” (HERE); I wrote that in 2019, the Fall Equinox will be on September 23^rd.  Since I published these articles, I have received several questions regarding the 23^rd as the date of the upcoming equinox.  

 

Most people wondered if I had mistyped the date, since accepted, common knowledge is that the Fall Equinox is on September 21^st, the Spring Equinox is on the 21^st of March, the Winter Solstice is on December 21^st and finally the Summer Solstice is on the 21^st of June.  Unfortunately in this case, common knowledge is only mostly right and the various equinoxes and solstices occur, either one or two days before or after the 21^st, and for the most part, very rarely on the 21^st.

But why is that, you ask, or at least that is what I asked myself, and so maybe you asked it too.  I didn’t know the answers, so I did some research, because that is what I do; and here are the “whys” and the “whens” of our yearly equinoxes and solstices.

Everyone knows, that on the coming Fall, or as it is more correctly known, September Equinox¹ the Sun rises exactly in the east and sets directly over the west.  But what causes an equinox and why is it on September 23^rd, in 2019, and not on the 21^st?

Earth’s Axial Tilt from “The September Equinox”, by www.timeanddate.com

Equinox is from the Latin, “aequinoctium”, meaning “equal night” and there are two equinoxes every year, one in September and one in March.  On these two days, the length of day and night is nearly equal at roughly 12 hours each, all over the world, and that is why they are called equinoxes.  Also, on both of them the sun rises in the east directly over the Equator and sets directly over the Equator in the west; because on these days the tilt of the Earth’s axis is perpendicular to the Sun’s rays.  The equinox occurs the moment the sun crosses the Earth’s celestial equator, the imaginary plane in the sky that extends directly out from the Earth’s equator and the exact date and time of this occurrence varies from year to year.  The March Equinox is both the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of fall in the Southern Hemisphere and the September Equinox, which in the Northern Hemisphere is the beginning of fall, is also the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

Most often the September Equinox falls on either the 22^nd or the 23^rd. Less often the September Equinox is on the 21^st or the 24^th; the last time it was on the 21^st was in the year 1000 and the next time it will fall on that day is in 2092.  Also, the last time the September Equinox fell on the 24^th was in the year 1931 and the next time will be in 2303.

The same pattern occurs with the March Equinox, which happens most often on the 20^th, and less often on the 19^th.

Solstice is from the Latin “solstitium” and it means “sun-stopping”.  There are also two solstices every year, and depending on which hemisphere you are in and they are both the shortest and the longest days of the year.  In the Northern Hemisphere, the June Solstice is the longest day of the year and the start of summer; while in the Southern Hemisphere it is the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter.  Six months later, on the December Solstice, everything is reversed and it is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of winter and it is the longest day of the year and the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.  Solstices occur when the Sun’s zenith is at its farthest point from the equator.  On the June Solstice, the Sun reaches its farthest point north at 23.4^o north latitude; the North Pole tilts towards the Sun and the Sun is visible all night from just south of the Arctic Circle to the North Pole; and the Sun rises to the north of east and sets to the north of west.  Also, south of the Antarctic Circle, there is no sunlight at all on the June Solstice.  On the December Solstice, the Sun reaches its most southern point at 23.4^o south latitude; the South Pole tilts towards the Sun and from just north of the Antarctic Circle to the South Pole the sun remains visible all night; and the Sun rises to the south of east and sets to the south of west.  From approximately the Arctic Circle to the North Pole, the sun remains below the horizon all day and there is no sunlight at all.

Most often the June Solstice occurs on the 21^st and only slightly less often it occurs on the 20^th.  Similarly the December Solstice, at least for the next 30 years, happens only on the 21^st.  So, in the case of the yearly solstices, common knowledge is mostly correct.

In the end though, common knowledge is close enough because as Richard Graves noted when he wrote about equinoxes on page 330 of, The 10 Bushcraft Books, “…for about two or three weeks either side of the Equinoctial periods…on any day between March 1^st and April 14^th or September 1^st and October 14^th…” the Sun rises and sets close enough to the true east-west line to use the sunrise and sunset to orient yourself.  Similarly, for about two to three weeks on either side of the solstices the Sun will be close to either its northern or southern zenith.  So whether it is the 19^th or 24^th, 22^nd, 21^st or 23^rd; it doesn’t really matter when all is said and done.

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.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

Notes

¹  I accidentally fell into a Northern Hemisphere-centric bias when I wrote my earlier articles in the “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass” series.  Seasons are opposite each other on either side of the Equator, and so using the descriptor, “Fall” for the coming equinox is both inaccurate and a bit of a misnomer, since the equinox that takes place in September is the Fall Equinox for the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring Equinox for the Southern Hemisphere.  Additionally, using “Spring” for the March Equinox and “Winter” and “Summer” for the December and June solstices is also incorrect.  My apologies to all of my readers, south of the Equator.

Sources

Grant, Megan; “Why Isn't The Fall Equinox On Sept. 21? The Earth's Axis & Rotation Around The Sun Are Incredibly Powerful”, September 21, 2016, https://www.bustle.com/articles/185268-why-isnt-the-fall-equinox-on-sept-21-the-earths-axis-rotation-around-the-sun

Graves, Richard; The 10 Bushcraft Books, [CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Middletown, Delaware, USA, December 20, 2017]

  

“June Solstice: Longest and Shortest Day of the Year”, [Time and Date AS 1995–2019], https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html

“March Equinox - Equal Day and Night, Nearly”, [Time and Date AS 1995–2019], https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox.html

“Solstices & Equinoxes for Buffalo (2000—2049)”, [Time and Date AS 1995–2019], https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/seasons.html?year=2000

“The September Equinox”, [Time and Date AS 1995–2019], https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html

“Winter Solstice – Shortest Day of the Year”, [Time and Date AS 1995–2019], https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/winter-solstice.html

Les Stroud, Survival and Outdoor Skills ©

The cover of Scouting, September-October 2019

  

Most of you probably don’t get Scouting magazine, so you won’t have read “Skills for Your Situation”, by Les Stroud.  In this article he talks about survival and he breaks outdoors skills into four types; survival skills, emergency preparedness skills, primitive skills and bushcraft skills.  His thoughts on survival and in particular the weekend recreational survivor are spot on and I had never thought to break up outdoor skills into different types: so I thought that I would share his article with you and expand on it, a bit.  Hopefully his thoughts, as well as mine, will help you identify which skills to learn and practice in case you need to survive an emergency in the wilderness.

First things first though; what I have written in this article is in no way a criticism and in no way detracts from Les Stroud’s thoughts or opinions.  I fact, I have always been and I still am a great admirer of his work and his thoughts on survival and on the teaching of survival skills: in many ways he has been and continues to be a role model for me and he has greatly influenced my writing for The Woodsman’s Journal Online.  In short, I am a huge fan of the Survivorman!

“One of my greatest fears was realized after I began the genre of survival shows on TV.  Some started to look at survival as more like a fun hobby…” Les Stroud

Les Stroud’s thoughts on survival and learning and practicing survival skills, as he explained in “Skills for Your Situation”, are that the “…true goal of survival is to get home alive and well”.  He continued by saying, they “…are not recreational skills” and that “…practicing and learning survival skills recreationally is a terrific way to get a handle on the methods”, however, “…you must keep an overarching serious and even somber attitude about the purpose” of studying and practicing survival skills.  According to Mr. Stroud, “Survival is not fun.  It is difficult, scary, humbling, painful and, in a word, ugly”.  I agree with Les Stroud, that it is important to remember why we learn these skills, and to remember what surviving an extreme situation or disaster in the wilderness is truly like: hopefully you will only ever have to practice your skills and never have to put your skills into practice.

“Knowing how to get a fire going anywhere, anytime, is just about the most important all around survival skill you can master” Les Stroud

Survival Skills

Survival skills, as Les Stroud noted are “…methods you can employ to simply survive an extreme situation or disaster in the bush” and are skills that deal with immediate and short-term problems. 

Les Stroud, wrote that “…survival is, by its very nature, meant to be short-term” and in “Outside” online, Devon O’Neill noted that statistically most “misplaced” persons are found within 72 hours of being reported missing.  He also wrote that, 85% “misplaced” persons are found within the first 12 hours and 97% within the first 24 hours of being reported missing.  So the survival skills that you have learned and practiced only have to keep you alive for 72 hours or three short days: days which in a survival situation will feel like weeks. 

Rule of Threes, graphic by the author

One very good way at looking at an individual skill and seeing if it belongs with “Survival Skills” is to use the “Rule of Threes”.  The “Rule of Threes” is a planning tool, which helps you prioritize which actions, and therefore skills, are the most critical to your immediate and short-term survival.  The “Rule of Threes” states that you cannot survive for more than 3 minutes without air or with severe bleeding.  You cannot survive for more than 3 hours without a fire or a shelter from the environment.  You cannot survive for more than 3 days without water or sleep.  But you can survive for 3 weeks without food.  The “Rule of Threes” assumes that the rules above them have already been met, so if you are in the desert without any water and you are bleeding severely, according to the three-minute rule, the most important action to take at that moment is to stop the bleeding. 

So, looking at the “Rule of Threes”, the most important immediate and short-term skills would be first aid skills, followed by shelter and fire building, then skills on how to find and purify water and finally hunting, fishing, trapping and other food gathering skills.  Other important short-term survival skills that fall into the “Rule of Threes” somewhere between three hours and three days are signaling, using a compass to orient yourself and how to find directions without a compass.  Skills that don’t help us with these very immediate and short-term survival goals are not “Survival Skills”

One very important survival skill, that is not considered in the “Rule of Threes” is learning to recognize and prevent panic and understanding the psychology of being lost.  It is critical that you do not give into panic and woodshock, that you practice S.T.O.P. and do not give in to the “Seven Deadly Enemies of Survival”: for more on these subjects and on “Rule of Threes” read “The Ace of Spades: Survival Basics”, HERE, and “Getting Lost And What To Do About It”, Circa 1915”, HERE. 

“Emergency preparedness skills are used in more urban circumstances, such as dealing with a hurricane or blackout…” Les Stroud

Emergency Preparedness Skills

Typically, emergency preparedness skills help you prepare for and deal with emergencies and situations that are close to home or, by extension, close to the vehicle that you are travelling in.  Les Stroud wrote that knowing how to conserve food and water in an urban disaster could save your life.

Window box, 1920s, from “Before the refrigerator got its hum”, The Smithsonian Institute

I live in the northeast of the United States, near the Great Lakes, where it is cold and snowy for a large part of the year; in the past, during power outages, I have had to make and use window ice box to keep cold things cold, while I worked to keep the house warm.  Other important emergency preparedness skills for my area of the world are, knowing how to drive in the snow, safely, and how to conserve heat in your car or how to make a “warm-room” in your house when there is no power.  And while you could argue that knowing how to stay alive in a snowbound car is a survival skill, unless you are travelling on a remote road (and really why are you travelling on a remote road during a snow storm anyways; what were you thinking?) your stay in the stranded car will probably be short.

An emergency preparedness skill that will help you survive an extreme situation or emergency in the wilderness is learning how to prepare first aid and survival kits: remember, both first aid and survival kits can range from pocket-sized to day-pack-sized and can be created for different emergencies, situations and uses.

“Primitive skills…They are not necessarily survival skills; they are thriving skills…” Les Stroud

Primitive Skills

Another name for primitive skills would be aboriginal skills, and they are the skills that native peoples, from any given area, once used as a part everyday life.  Skills that can fall into this category are basketry, making pottery from clay, preparing and tanning hides, building advanced shelters and cooking over an open fire.  Many of these skills could be used to help you survive an emergency in the wilderness, however most of them are difficult to learn, are time and energy consuming and might take more than one per person to accomplish.

Larry Dean Olsen’s book Outdoor Survival Skills is a great book on primitive skills, photo by the author

Primitive skills require expert knowledge of native or aboriginal skills; they solve medium to long-term problems, take time, energy and sometimes more than one person to accomplish successfully: all things that you might be lacking in an emergency or survival situation in the wilderness.

Les Stroud believes, and I agree with him, that snowshoe making is a primitive skill that has survival applications.  Let’s say that you have had an emergency in the winter wilderness and you have decided to walk out instead of waiting for rescuers: walking in deep snow can be very exhausting and exhaustion in a survival situation is a killer, particularly in the winter.  Knowing how to make expedient or primitive snowshoes, in that situation, can mean the difference between successfully walking out and freezing to death in the wilderness.

Other primitive skills that might be useful in a survival situation are fire-starting, without modern tools, and basic flint knapping.  Basic flint knapping is simply fracturing rocks to make sharp edged or other basic tools, unlike advanced flint knapping which is the crafting of advanced stone tools and projectile points.

“Bushcraft skills…These skills are mostly unnecessary in a survival situation…” Les Stroud

Bushcraft Skills

Bushcraft skills, which could just as well be called pioneer skills, require expert knowledge of the pioneer way of life and they solve medium to long-term problems, take time, energy, expert knowledge and sometimes more than one person to accomplish successfully: again these are all things that you might be lacking in an emergency or survival situation in the wilderness.  Some of these skills might be able to be adapted to a survival situation, but for the most part these skills are designed to make long-term life in the wilderness more comfortable.  Bushcraft skills include log-cabin building, bridge building, primitive furniture making and other domestic skills; they involve learning the use and care of axes, knives and rope, and how to use lashings and knots.

I hope that this will help you decide which skills will be most useful in helping you to survive that “…difficult, scary, humbling, painful and, in a word, ugly…” thing that is survival in an emergency or disaster in the wilderness.

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.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

Sources

O’Neill, Devon “How Backcountry Search and Rescue Works”, [Outside, March 4, 2016], https://www.outsideonline.com/2059616/how-backcountry-search-and-rescue-works, accessed 10/09/2018

Stroud, Les, “Skills for Your Situation”, Scouting, September-October 2019, Vol. 107, No. 4, [Boy Scouts of America, Irving, TX], p. 44-45

Window box, 1920s, from “Before the refrigerator got its hum”, [The Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of American History, Trade, Literature and Special Collections; Behring Center] https://americanhistory.si.edu/object-project/refrigerators/ice-tongs, accessed 9/7/19

How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method©

The Shadow-tip Method of finding your way, picture taken in Algonquin Provincial Park by the author.

You are “misplaced” in the wilderness, you don’t have a compass and you aren’t wearing a watch: now you are wondering if there is a way to locate the approximate direction of north and south, some way that doesn’t require a compass or a watch. 

First things first, what were you thinking?  Have ever heard of “be prepared” or the “Ten Essentials”?  But yes to answer your question, there is; it is called the “Shadow-tip Method”, although perhaps it should be called the “Quick Shadow-tip Method” to differentiate it from other methods that take more time.  The “Shadow-tip Method” is quick and easy and, particularly around noon, very accurate.

You should all know all about how the Sun moves through the sky during the day and throughout the year, however if you don’t read “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part One, Orientation By The Sun”, HERE and “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Two, The Watch As A Compass”, HERE. 

Adapted from Survival: Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, p. 41, Fig. 16, by the author

It is important to remember that everywhere in the world the Sun rises, mostly, in the east and sets, mostly, in the west: only on the Spring Equinox (March 21^st) and the Fall Equinox (September 23^rd) does it rise exactly in the east and set exactly in the west.  It is also important to remember that without a compass you will be unable to determine the exact direction of magnetic north and you will not be able to find a specific point or location.  However, if you are simply trying to maintain a general heading then, without a compass, the Sun’s arc is your best point of reference.  So, keeping those two things in mind, the “Shadow-tip Method” will give you the general direction of north, south, east and west, no matter when, where or what hemisphere you are in, as long as there is enough sunshine to cast a shadow. 

An excerpt from Survival FM 21-26.

To Find Your Directions With the “Shadow-tip Method

·       First find a relatively straight, twig less branch or stick that is about three feet (one meter) long, to use as a shadow stick.  Next find a fairly flat, brush-free spot, where the Sun will cast a shadow.  The exact size of the shadow stick is not important, however the closer to three feet (one meter) that it is, the wider apart the tips of the shadows will be.  Also, you don’t need to look for a large level piece of open ground, any flat dirt spot the size of your hand will do: it only has to be large enough for two shadow tip markings.

If you do not have anything to make a shadow stick with, any stationary object, like a rock outcropping, the end of tree branch or anything else that will cast a shadow will do, because only the position of the shadow tips matter.

·       Push the shadow stick into the ground so that it is standing upright, it doesn’t need to be perfectly vertical with the ground to work.  If you have to incline the shadow stick, to get a good shadow on the ground, it will not affect the accuracy of the “Shadow-tip Method”.  Also, the base of your shadow stick can either be above, below or beside the flat dirt spot, it doesn’t need to be in the center of it.

·       Mark the tip of the shadow that the shadow stick casts, with a stone, pebble or stick: this is your first mark.

Photo by the author.

·       Wait for about ten to fifteen minutes, during which time the tip of the shadow will have moved between one and a half to two inches (four to five centimeters), and mark the tip of the new shadow: this is your second mark.

 

Photo by the author.

·       Draw a line from the first mark to and past the second mark, by about one foot (about 30 centimeters).  This is your east-west line and the first mark is always to the west of the second mark: anywhere on the earth, no matter what time of day or what time of year.

Figure 1: The movement of the Sun and the shadow cast by the shadow stick in the northern hemisphere above 23^o 27’ north latitude, diagram by the author.

·       In the northern hemisphere, above 23^o 27’ north latitude, the Tropic of Cancer; the Sun is always south of you, and the shadow cast by the shadow stick is always to the north side of the stick. 

An excerpt from Field Service, (Second Edition), 1912, p. 74; the Sun is obviously behind the person in the picture; he must be in the northern hemisphere, above 23^o 27’ north latitude.

If you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the line extending through the second mark, then above 23^o 27’ N. latitude, both the Sun and the shadow stick will be behind you.  If you extend your left arm, it will be pointing west and if you extend your right arm it will be pointing east and you will be facing north.

Figure 2: The movement of the Sun and the shadow cast by the shadow stick in the southern hemisphere above 23^o 27’ south latitude, diagram by the author.

In the southern hemisphere, above 23^o 27’ south latitude, the Tropic of Capricorn; the Sun is always north of you, and the shadow cast by the shadow stick is always to the south side of the stick. 

So, if you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the line extending through the second mark, then above 23^o 27’ S. latitude, both the Sun and the shadow stick will be in front of you.  Just as in the northern hemisphere, if you extend your left arm, it will be pointing west and if you extend your right arm it will be pointing east and you will be facing north¹.

In the tropics between the Tropic of Cancer, 23^o 27’ N. latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn, 23^o 27’ S. latitude; the Sun’s position and whether the shadow cast by the shadow stick is north or south of the stick is little confused: it depends on if the Sun is above or below the Equator, your location and what time of the year it is.  From the Spring Equinox, on March 21^st, to the Fall Equinox, September 23^rd, the Sun will be north of the Equator and between the Fall Equinox and the Spring Equinox, the Sun will bet to the south of the Equator.

However, in any case, just like anywhere else in the world, the first shadow-tip mark is always more west than the second mark.  If you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on a line extending through both marks then if you extend your left arm, it will be pointing west and if you extend your right arm it will be pointing east and you will be facing north.

Bradford Angier, in Survival With Style, noted on page 75, that “…this method is surprisingly accurate during the middle of the day.  The line runs a bit south of west in the morning.  Afternoon it tends somewhat north of west.  During a day of travel by this method, however, these inaccuracies will average out” 

I decided to experiment and as you can see from the photographs below, in the morning calculated north deviates from true north by about 20^o to the west, around noon the calculated north points to true north and in the afternoon calculated north, again deviates from true north by about 20^o, this time to the east.  So Bradford Angier stated correctly that the “Shadow-tip Method” is surprisingly accurate and any inaccuracies cancel each other out over a full days travel.

This photo was taken at 1:12 pm, daylight savings time, during August, and there is no difference between the direction of north calculated with the “Shadow-tip Method” and actual north; photo by the author.

This photo was taken at 9:51 am, daylight savings time, during August, photo by the author.

This photo was taken at 3:02 pm, daylight savings time, during August, photo by the author.

Bradford Angier’s statement that “The line runs a bit south of west in the morning.  Afternoon it tends somewhat north of west” confused me at first, but I believe that what he is describing is the Sun’s rising and setting further and further to the north of the Equator, between the Spring Equinox on March 21^st and the Fall Equinox on September 23^rd.  This northward progression culminates with the Summer Solstice on the 21^st of June, when the Sun is at its farthest point north.  In the morning during this time, the Sun rises to the east-by-northeast and it will cast a shadow to west-by-southwest, so a line drawn between two shadow tips will have a northeast to southwest axis.  In the afternoon as the Sun sets towards the west-by-northwest, it will cast a shadow towards east-by-southeast and a line drawn between two shadow tips will extend from the northwest to the southeast. 

I intend to experiment further with the “Shadow-tip Method” on both the coming Fall Equinox and on the days after to see if, “the line runs a bit southeast to the northwest in the morning and afternoon it tends somewhat southwest to the northeast” to paraphrase Bradford Angier.  It should because between the Fall Equinox and the Spring Equinox the Sun rises in the east-by-southeast and the morning shadow should fall towards the west-by-northwest and in the afternoon as the Sun sets in the west-by-southwest the shadow should fall towards the east-by-northeast.  Look for the results of my experiment in “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method – Revisited”.

Also, Bradford Angier mentioned that “All you need is sunlight or moonlight strong enough to cast a shadow”, so look for “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method – With Moonlight” where I will experiment with the “Shadow-tip Method” at night.

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.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

Notes

¹  In Survival FM 21-26, on page 11-2 it states “Stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the end of the line you drew”.  And on page 11-3 it notes that having stood with your left foot on the first mark that “If you are in the northern temperate zone, you will be facing in a northerly direction…If you are in the southern temperate zone, you will be facing in a southerly direction”.  I believe that this is an error, Paul Risk in Outdoor Safety And Survival, on page 285 to 286 explains where I believe that the authors became confused, “Standing with the toes on the marks and the vertical stick in front of the observer (emphasis by the author), you will be facing roughly south if above 23.4^o N. latitude and roughly north if below 23.4^o S. latitude”.  If you look at the figures 1 and 2 you will see that by putting your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the second mark above 23^o 27’ N. latitude, the shadow stick and the sun will be behind you and you will be facing north.  Above 23^o 27’ S. latitude, if you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the second mark, then the shadow stick and the sun will be in front of you, and again you will be facing north.

Sources

Airlines War Training Institute,Survival: Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, [The Infantry Journal, Washington, D.C., 1944] p. 41-42

Angier, Bradford, Survival With Style, [Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1972] p. 75

Boswell, John, Editor, The U.S. Armed Forces Survival Manual, [Times Books, New York, NY, 1980] p. 25-27

Headquarters, Department of the Army, Survival FM 21-26, [Washington D. C., March 26, 1986] p. 11-1 to 11-3

“Field-Expedient Methods of Determining Direction” [Army Study Guide, QuinStreet, Inc., Foster City, CA, 1999 – 2018]

https://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/land_navigation_map_reading/field-expedient-methods-of-determining-direction.shtml, accessed 7/30/2019

Jackson, Andrew, J., “Shadow Tip Method – Field Expedient Direction Finding” [Prepopgraphy: The Art & Study of Self-Reliance, January 4, 2013] http://prepography.com/shadow-tip-method/, accessed 7/30/2019

“Other Methods of Finding Direction (MGRS)” [Offroadsafety.org]

http://www.offroadsafety.org/get-out/land-navigation/other-methods-of-finding-direction-mgrs, accessed 7/30/19

Moss, Captain James A., Field Service, (Second Edition) [The U.S. Infantry Association, Washington D.C., 1912], p. 74 https://books.google.com/books?id=5aFDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22complete+campers%27+manual%22+field+service&source=bl&ots=h_jmTeYA_D&sig=ACfU3U0tH-qTqeuEGfWKGFnj9pYicoYL_w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHuvm5saPkAhVwUN8KHYX_BF4Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 8/27/2019

Risk, Paul H., Outdoor Safety And Survival, [John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1983] p. 285-286