Outdoor Navigation Skills: Get Your Bearings From the Sun

Powerless GPS units and broken compasses spell disaster for the over-reliant and unprepared. Knowing the sun rises in the east and sets in the west is a good start, but these methods allow for more precise direction-finding based on your surroundings. No matter how many compasses you break (or leave at home), you’ll never be lost again thanks to Active Junky.

Shadow Tip Method

• In a flat and sunny area, drive a stick into the ground.  
• Mark the tip of the stick’s shadow with a pebble.  
• Wait at least fifteen minutes—the shadow will move.
• Mark the new shadow’s tip with a second pebble.  
• Draw a line between the two pebbles.  The first point roughly marks West, and second, approximate East.  Stand with the West mark to your left and the East to your right, and look straight. You’ve now found north. 
• Note: South of the Equator, the opposite is true.  Be advised this technique doesn’t work in polar regions due to the sun’s angle.

Wristwatch Method

At noon, the sun is close to its highest point in the sky, nearly due South (in the Northern Hemisphere).  At other hours of the day, use an analog watch to find south: 

Northern Hemisphere

•    Point the hour hand toward the sun.  
•    Then, find the midpoint between the hour hand and 12 o’clock. Imagine a line that extends from the watch’s center through the midpoint. This resulting line points South. 

Southern Hemisphere

•    Point 12 o’ clock on the watch face towards the sun. 
•    Find the midpoint between 12 o’clock and the hour hand.  The resulting line points North.

If you have a digital watch, you can still use this method.  Sketch the analog equivalent on a piece of paper – what a watch face would look like right now -- for an approximation. 

Note: the closer to the equator you get, the less effective most sun navigation methods become.