Sun Compass - Southern Hemisphere

pict

pict

Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
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The shadow and stick method is a wilderness navigation staple that everyone should know how it do. It allows you to orient yourself just using the sun and a shadow. Most manuals show this method for the Northern Hemisphere. Things are reversed here below the Equator so I figured I'd shoot a video of the process from another angle, so to speak.

Sun Compass Southern Hemisphere

Mac
 
Hey Pict,

Thanks for your latest cinemagraphic efforts. A very important skill to own - how to determine direction without a compass, or, dare I say it, a GPS?

GPS' and other electronic gizmos are very accurate and fun to use, but they can malfunction!!!!!. So, by all means, use one, but know how to do without.

A very timely contribution, thanks Pict.

Doc
 
Thanks for watching.

You can use this method in the Northern Hemisphere but you have to remember that the base of the shadow at the stick is pointing south and the tip of the solar noon shadow is pointing north.

As for getting messed up down here I have found that people who have a very good natural sense of direction get affected by the shadows here more than those who normally have no clue. I think the brain just picks up on the way things move and the way shadows point and give a sense of orientation. Your sense of east and west stays the same but your sense of north and south gets flipped over. It really is hard for the brain to adjust to it and it could very well cause you to walk off in the wrong direction.

Anyway, most of the books and videos out there show this method from the northern hemisphere perspective so I figured that before I left in two weeks I'd get this one up showing how things work down here. Ron Hood actually has a really good video on this technique as well as the disappearing shadow method. I set it up as a fovorite on my YT site so people can compare. I think I need some Road Warrior meets Jeramiah Johnson clothes for my vids though, well, that and a whole 'nother level of skill wouldn't hurt. Mac
 
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