One of the most important skills for those who like to travel or just relax savages, is orientation on the ground. In this article, we will consider the main ways to determine the sides of the horizon.
Owning this information you will not get lost even under the most difficult conditions. The main condition is the availability of a card. Otherwise, you have to be guided by logic and assumptions. Nevertheless, you can determine your location with ease.
Compass
We will begin to learn how to determine the sides of the horizon with the easiest and most obvious. Using a compass, you can easily find out where the north is. Only there are a few prerequisites. What you need to know so that this device does not fail you?
Firstly, it is possible to determine the cardinal points only when the compass is in a strictly horizontal, stationary position, and the arrow has ceased to oscillate.
Secondly, in a radius of fifty meters around you should not be power lines, railroad tracks, transformers and other sources of electromagnetic or magnetic radiation. Otherwise, the compass will deviate from the correct course or the arrow will begin to turn and behave incomprehensibly.
How to use this device?
The most common are two army compasses - Adrianov and artillery, as well as sports varieties. They differ only in the level of prices and the presence of certain scales.
In any device on top, on the lid, there is a special sight through which you can determine the landmark. So, hold the compass horizontally, wait until the arrow stops. Its dark end will point north. Now we turn the sight so that it coincides with the arrow in vector. Now the cardinal points are easy to determine. If you look to the north, then the south will be behind, the east will be on the right, and the west will be on the left.
Clock
Determining the sides of the horizon by the clock is one of the most interesting, unusual and effective ways. For its implementation, a mechanical watch with arrows is required. Electronic will not work.
This method is a bit similar to determining the sides of the horizon by the sun, since we cannot do without a star. What features does this orientation method have?
Firstly, there are different options for determining the location in the morning and at lunch. The boundary time is one hour in the afternoon (13:00).
Secondly, the clock must go exactly.
So, we position the device so that the hand, which shows the clock (often it is thicker and shorter than the others), looks at the sun. Next, draw an imaginary angle that connects two lines in the center of the dial. One will coincide with the clockwise, and the second will go through the number one.
After that, divide the angle in half by an imaginary straight line. Ahead will be the south, the middle line will indicate it.
The feature is as follows. Until one in the afternoon, we measure the arc from the hand showing the clock. That is the way that she still needs to go before 13:00. And after this time, we draw an imaginary arc counterclockwise. Therefore, now we are measuring the path that she has already gone after an hour in the afternoon.
Better to figure out this way of orienting yourself on the terrain, the drawing above will help you.
Needle
According to many tourists, the following definition on the terrain of the sides of the horizon is the most unusual. In addition, for its implementation requires additional equipment and skills. From the side, it looks more like a circus trick. So what do we need?
- Metal needle for sewing. She will become the arrow of our impromptu compass.
- Something that will give the needle buoyancy properties. It can be vegetable oil (we lubricate it with a copiously metal rod or drip onto the surface of the water), a small piece of cork or polystyrene. The main condition is that the needle should float in a horizontal position.
- The metal rod must be magnetized. This can be done using a magnet, a piece of wool or some other improvised means. For example, in the case of a needle, the most common scissors will be a good choice. All you need to do is click their ends as if you are trying to cut the needle in half. From the rapid friction of metal on metal, the rod will begin to magnetize.
- Capacity with water. This may be some kind of container or, for example, a depression in a tree or stone filled with standing water.
The main sides of the horizon (in the presence of all the above objects) are determined elementarily. A well-magnetized needle that floats on the surface of the water will rotate along the south-north line under the influence of the planet’s magnetic field.
The only inconvenience - it will not be clear where which side is. This will have to be determined in additional ways.
But for safety, this method is fully suitable. In addition, it is very indicative of teaching children orienteering and explaining the principles of magnetic fields.
Heavenly bodies
The sun in one hour across the horizon passes an angle of fifteen degrees. People have long been guided by it. But for a more accurate determination of the cardinal points, you should know some features.
In the summer, the Sun in the northern hemisphere moves along the southern side of the sky. Therefore, it rises not in the east, but in the northeast. Sits, respectively, in the northwest.
In winter, the same picture is repeated, only from the northern side. In spring and autumn, the star rises and sets in the east and west.
The second feature on which the determination of the sides of the horizon by the sun is based is the length of the shadow. In principle, the shortest shadow is about an hour in the afternoon. She points to the north if the subject is stationary and is in a strictly vertical position.
For a more accurate understanding of the location, you should use other methods of determining the sides of the horizon. For example, with a mechanical watch, which was described above.
At night, when there is no luminary, it is easiest to navigate the North Star. This is part of the constellation Ursa Minor. According to astronomers, it is located near the axis of the north pole of the world and is practically motionless, unlike other stars. Therefore, it is very easy to determine where it is north.
How to find this star? First you need to find the Big Dipper in the sky. This is a constellation in the form of a large bucket with a handle. Depending on the time of day, it can be located vertically, horizontally or at an angle.
Now you need to mentally continue the line that connects the two stars that form the front wall of the bucket (opposite the handle). If you extend it by a distance of five times greater than the length of the segment, you will stumble upon the North Star.
You can clearly see how to do this, in the figure on the left.
The buildings
The main sides of the horizon are very easily identified near buildings of sacred significance.
It can be Orthodox churches or Catholic churches, chapels, mosques, synagogues. Each of these buildings is built according to its own strict laws.
If there is an Orthodox church, cathedral or temple nearby, you need to look at the lower crossbar. According to legend, there were the feet of Christ. It is slanted diagonally. Its upper edge is directed towards the north.
Altars in Catholic churches are located in the west, and in Lutheran and Orthodox churches in the east.
There are other local signs of determining the sides of the horizon. So, the entrance of mosques and synagogues is located approximately in the northern part of the building. According to these religions, the person who entered the building should be facing Mecca or Jerusalem, respectively.
In East Asia, Buddhist buildings usually face south. Yurts of the indigenous peoples of Siberia also have an entrance from this side of the world.
Clears are traditionally made in forests. Usually they are cut either from east to west, or from north to south.
Natural objects
Many methods of determining the sides of the horizon have long been known. For this, people used observations of trees, animal behavior and other environmental features.
For example, due to the abundance of light and heat in summer, on the south side, berries and fruits ripen faster and have a more saturated color on the side facing this side. On freshly sawn trees, the rings are wider on the south side than on the north. This is due to the same abundance of sunlight and heat.
There are other signs of determining the sides of the horizon. Ant hills are steeper on the north side and gently sloping on the south. It is also believed that icicles are more often formed on the south side of the roof.
If there are pine trees nearby, they are quite easy to determine the south. From this side, their trunks will be lighter, the bark is coarser. And also there will be much more resin streaks on it than on the north side of the tree. The grass is greener in the south in the summer, and earlier turns yellow in the north.
The most popular method is to pay attention to the amount of moss on stones and tree trunks. It is believed that these plants love to settle on the northern side.
Lichens and Mosses
Determining the signs of the sides of the horizon, you need to use complex results. This is especially true of natural phenomena and the plant world.
Earlier we mentioned the most common way to find the north side. It consists in the fact that you just need to look at a tree trunk or stone. Moss should be on the north side. But if it really is, you are incredibly lucky. This happens once a hundred trees, or even more. Why so? What is the reason?
Everything is simple. These plants love shade and moisture. It is assumed that it is from the northern side that such a microclimate is formed. But in the forest there are actually completely different conditions. It all depends on the terrain, the surrounding ponds or mountains.
In addition, you may find yourself near the edge of the forest. Do not pay attention to felling and, guided by the position of moss and lichens in the trees, mark the north. Before that, those trunks that you see were in the shade deep in the forest. It was only after cutting that they turned out to be the outskirts.
The same applies to the buildings that we talked about earlier. Traditionally, they should be built as we already mentioned, but today everything is changing. Some architect decided to innovate and make the door elsewhere.
Therefore, be sure to use the signs in the complex, but rather take a compass with you.
Lettuce
There are quite extravagant ways to determine the horizon with the cardinal points. This includes the so-called "compass plants." They usually have one or more permanent traits that gradually become fixed as they grow older.
Such plants, for example, include compass lettuce. Outwardly, it looks like a very large dandelion with small yellow flowers. Over time, they, like the younger brother, become fluffy parachutes.
However, he is not at all a relative of an ordinary dandelion. Rather, a relative can be called a salad.
In fact, compass lettuce is a weed. It grows in the steppe zone of the former Soviet Union almost everywhere. In the fields you can meet its thickets, and by the road there are separate plants.
Its peculiarity is that it hides the delicate surface of the leaves from sunlight. Lettuce turns them to one side. And when the plant is mature enough, they freeze in this position. Not always, but very often the leaves indicate a line from north to south.
If you decide to use exclusively this method, it is better to find thickets of lettuce. Since a single plant can be an exception and will confuse you.
Sunflower
Now we will study the last “plant” way to determine the direction of the sides of the horizon. To do this, we need one, or better, several nearby growing sunflowers.
From school, children know that the plant turns after the sun. That is, in the morning it looks east, and in the evening it turns out to be westward.
However, this is not quite true. If you carefully follow the life of a sunflower during its various stages, you can be very surprised. It turns out that over time, when a plate of flower appears and takes shape from the bud, the plant freezes.
A fully open sunflower will never turn after the sun. He always looks where the first morning rays come from. If this is an open space, then the flower will be directed towards the northeast or east.
If there are obstacles nearby, the sunflower will look exclusively to the side from where the first rays appear. In this case, you can not rely on him.
Modern technology
Modern technology allows you to navigate the terrain only on the screen of the device. We are talking about a professional navigator or a regular mobile phone with the Internet.
However, the reality is that the network does not catch everywhere. Therefore, even GPS should be turned on before entering the forest to mark the place where you will need to return. For example, you are standing near the first line of trees and, judging by the instrument, look to the southeast. So you will return to the northwest. This is the direction we remember.
The second important point. If suddenly the connection is lost and the navigator or map is no longer active, an unusual solution will help. We turn on the analog dial on the mobile phone in the "alarm" section. Now you have an electronic version of the clock with arrows. And then we act as described above.
Thus, dear readers, today we have learned to determine the sides of the horizon on the ground. This is a useful skill that will undoubtedly come in handy for mushroom pickers, hunters, wildlife lovers or travelers.