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Navigating with the moon and a watch (Read 571 times)
Reply #15 - Sep 20th, 2011 at 10:13pm

Webb   Offline
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Morningwood Golf Resort

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beaky wrote on Sep 19th, 2011 at 8:51pm:
Find the Big Dipper, and trace a line up from its bowl. That really bright star there is Polaris (aka Alpha Ursae Minoris, a supergiant about 434 light-years away).  It's never directly overhead unless you're at the North Pole, so whatever side of the sky it seems to be on if you look straight up is true north. The rest is easy enough to figure out.  Wink

It's easier that that.  You don't need to find Polaris to find north - you  just need to find the Big Dipper.  It's a lot bigger and a lot easier to find than tracing a line up its bowl to find a single star.

You should be able to find the Big Dipper by turning in a circle a couple of times.  Since Polaris is directly "above" the North Pole its "altitude" is whatever your northern latitude is.  I live in South Florida so it's always 26° above the horizon.  In London it's always 51° above the horizon.
 
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Reply #16 - Sep 21st, 2011 at 6:45am

machineman9   Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Webb wrote on Sep 20th, 2011 at 10:13pm:
beaky wrote on Sep 19th, 2011 at 8:51pm:
Find the Big Dipper, and trace a line up from its bowl. That really bright star there is Polaris (aka Alpha Ursae Minoris, a supergiant about 434 light-years away).  It's never directly overhead unless you're at the North Pole, so whatever side of the sky it seems to be on if you look straight up is true north. The rest is easy enough to figure out.  Wink

It's easier that that.  You don't need to find Polaris to find north - you  just need to find the Big Dipper.  It's a lot bigger and a lot easier to find than tracing a line up its bowl to find a single star.

You should be able to find the Big Dipper by turning in a circle a couple of times.  Since Polaris is directly "above" the North Pole its "altitude" is whatever your northern latitude is.  I live in South Florida so it's always 26° above the horizon.  In London it's always 51° above the horizon.

One word: Clouds!

Really, I rarely get to see stars through the cloud coverage. It would be a miracle to be lost on a day where the stars are visible. The best place I've ever been for stars was in Spain... And we saw millions of them as they were all in the milky way  Cool


Using the reflection of the city lights does seem like a promising option! There are only smaller towns around here (until Chester/Liverpool/Manchester/Stoke) but even the smaller ones should still provide adequate lighting.
 
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