How do you tell what direction you're going?

Answer 1

There are several ways to navigate in the outdoors. Some are more precise than others. The most basic method for navigating is to pay attention to the sun. The sun rises generally in the east and sets generally in the west; the precise compass heading it rises and sets upon depends on the season (further to the south in winter, further to the north in summer for those in the Northern Hemisphere). Navigating using the sun during the day is possible if you have an analog watch set to the correct time: point the hour hand directly at the sun, bisect the angle between the hour hand and 12:00 on your watch, and the bisected angle points due south. At midday on a summer day, as well as anywhere near the equator, the sun may be almost directly overhead, which makes this method difficult. The most reliable method is to use a magnetic compass and a map. The compass needle points toward magnetic north, so an accurate map showing the declination between true north and magnetic north is needed to navigate precisely. For general purposes, a magnetic compass will give its user a general idea of North, South, East, and West, and provide a means to judge the relative direction of different landforms from his present location. A more high-tech method now available is to use a handheld GPS to navigate when on foot. A GPS may provide very accurate information, but it is no substitute for paying attention to the landscape and where one is going. Many people who rely solely on their GPS for navigation find themselves lost. At night, it is possible to navigate by using the stars. In the northern hemisphere, Polaris, also called the North Star, is always exactly north. To find Polaris, locate the Big Dipper; Polaris is always above the Big Dipper's cup. Explorers navigated using the stars and other instruments for a long time, and it is a tried and true method. Even astronauts can use stars to navigate, most famously on Apollo 13, where astronauts had to navigate by stars because their computers had to be shut down.