On two ocassions, I have caught a glimpse of, but missed most of, a way to use the sun and shadows to find direction, and to find the time of day.
Can anyone explain these tricks?
Thanks.
There are 3 ways to find direction using the sun and shadows (that I know of). 1st - place a stick, 2-3 ft long vertically in the ground. Mark the tip of the shadow produced by the stick with a rock, stick, whatever. Wait 20 minutes or so and mark the shadow tip's new location. Join these two reference points and it will give you a rough east-west line. (Not exactly east-west, but close enough to get your butt going in the right direction)
Another method is the no-shadow method. Take a stick, 2 or 3 feet long, and stick it in the ground pointing directly towards the sun so that no shadow is cast by the stick. As the day progresses, a shadow will start to extend from the base of the stick in an easterly direction. (Once again, this is not perfectly east-west, but will serve the purpose.
The 3rd method, and the most accurate one is to place a stick in the ground (the same as in the first method) sometime before solar noon (The point at which the sun is directly overhead. Mark the tip's shadow. Using the shadow-casting stick as the centre and the distance from this stick to the marker you used to mark the shadow's tip as a radius, scribe a semi circle. As the sun rises to solar noon position, the shadow will shorten. Once past solar noon, the shadow will once again lengthen and when it is long enough that it touches the semi circle that you drew, mark this position as position #2. Join #1 and #2 position and this will be your east-west line.
Better yet, spend a couple of bucks and order the
Navigation DVD from Hoods Woods. It explains these methods in great detail as well as a lot of other really cool navigation techniques. Well worth the cost of the DVD!
As far as telling time using the sun and shadows, there is a lot of information around that will give you very, rough, approximate time. Best thing to do is access (free for download) the Richard Grave's book,
Bushcraft. In it, there is detailed information in how to set up a solar clock.
Doc
