Methods for determining the sides of the horizon on the ground

One of the most important skills for those who like to travel or just relax by savages is the orientation on the terrain. In this article we will consider the main ways to determine the sides of the horizon.

Owning this information you will not be lost even under the most difficult conditions. The main condition is the presence of a map. Otherwise, one must be guided by logic and assumptions. Nevertheless, you can easily determine your location.

Compass

We will begin to study the methods of determining the sides of the horizon from the easiest and most obvious. With the help of a compass, you can easily find out where the north is. Only there are a few mandatory conditions. What you need to know, so you do not let this device down?

Firstly, it is possible to determine the sides of the light only when the compass is in a strictly horizontal, stationary position, and the needle ceases to oscillate.

Secondly, within a radius of fifty meters around you there should be no 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 start spinning and it is incomprehensible to behave.

How correctly to use this device?

The most common are two army compasses - Adrianova and artillery, as well as sports varieties. They differ only in the level of prices and the presence of certain scales.

In any instrument on top, on the lid, is a special sight, through which you can determine the landmark. So, hold the compass horizontally, wait until the arrow stops. Its dark end points to the north. Now turn the visor so that it coincides with the arrow along the vector. Now the sides of the world are easy to define. If you look to the north, then the south will be behind, the east on the right, and the west on the left.

Clock

Determining the sides of the horizon by the clock is one of the most interesting, unusual and effective ways. To implement it, you need a mechanical clock with arrows. Electronic do not fit.

This method is a bit like determining the sides of the horizon by the sun, since we can not do without a light. What features does this method of orientation have on the terrain?

First, there are different options for determining the location in the morning and at lunch. Border time is one o'clock in the afternoon (13:00).

Secondly, the clock should go exactly.

So, we have the device so that the arrow that shows the clock (often, it is thicker and shorter than the others), looked at the sun. Next, you need to draw an imaginary angle, which will connect two lines in the center of the dial. One will coincide with the hour hand, and the second will pass through the number "one".

After that, divide the angle in half by an imaginary straight line. Ahead will be the south, on it will indicate the middle line.

The peculiarity is as follows. Until one o'clock in the afternoon we arc measured from the arrow showing the clock. That is the way that she still needs to go through before 13:00. And after this time we draw an imaginary arc counterclockwise. Therefore, now we measure the way it has already passed after one in the afternoon.

It is better to understand this way of orientation on the terrain, the figure above will help you.

Needle

According to many tourists, the following definition on the terrain sides of the horizon is the most unusual. In addition, for its implementation requires additional equipment and skills. From the outside it is more like a circus focus. So, what do we need?

1. Metal needle for sewing. It will become the arrow of our impromptu compass.
2. Something that gives the needle the properties of buoyancy. It can be vegetable oil (it is lubricated with a plentiful metal rod or dripping to the surface of water), a small piece of cork or polystyrene. The main condition is that the needle should float in a horizontal position.
3. The metal rod must be magnetized. This can be done with 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 them with the ends as if you are trying to cut the needle in half. From the rapid friction of the metal against the metal, the rod will begin to magnetize.
4. Capacity with water. It may be some kind of container or, for example, a groove in a tree or stone filled with standing water.

The main sides of the horizon (in the presence of all the above-named objects) are determined elementary. A well magnetized needle that floats on the surface of the water, under the influence of the magnetic field of the planet, will turn along the line "south-north".

The only inconvenience - it will not be clear where is which side. This will have to be determined in additional ways.

But for safety this method is fully suitable. In addition, it is very revealing for teaching children orientation on the terrain and explaining the principles of magnetic fields.

Heavenly Lights

The sun passes an angle of fifteen degrees in one hour in the sky. People have long been guided by it. But for a more accurate definition of the sides of the world, it is worth knowing 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 north-east. Sits, respectively, in the north-west.

In winter the same picture is repeated, only from the north side. In spring and autumn, the luminary rises and sets in the east and west.

The second feature on which the definition of the sides of the horizon is based on the sun is the length of the shadow. In principle, the shortest shadow is about one in the afternoon. It points to the north if the object is stationary and is in a strictly vertical position.

For a more accurate understanding of the location, it is worthwhile using other methods of determining the horizon's sides. For example, with a mechanical clock, which was described above.

At night, when there is no light, it is easiest to navigate the Polar Star. This is part of the constellation of the Little Bear. As astronomers say, it is located near the axis of the north pole of the world and is practically motionless, unlike other stars. Because of it it is very easy to determine where the north is.

How to find this star? To begin with, you need to find the Great Bear in the sky. It 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 forming the front wall of the bucket (opposite to the handle). If you extend it by a distance five times larger than the length of the segment, you will stumble upon the North Star.

It is clearly seen how to do this, in the figure on the left.

The buildings

The main sides of the horizon are very easily identified near the buildings of sacred significance.

It can be Orthodox churches or Catholic churches, chapels, mosques, synagogues. Each of these buildings is built according to its strict laws.

If there is an Orthodox church, a cathedral or a church nearby, you need to look at the lower crossbar. According to legend, the feet of Christ were there. It is beveled 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. Thus, the entrance of mosques and synagogues is located approximately in the northern part of the building. According to these religions, a person entering the building must face to Mecca or Jerusalem, respectively.

In East Asia, Buddhist buildings are usually viewed with facades to the south. Yurts of indigenous peoples of Siberia also have an entrance from this side of the world.

In the forests, cuttings are traditionally made. Usually they cut through either from east to west, or from north to south.

Natural objects

For a long time, many ways of determining the sides of the horizon have been known. For this, people used to observe the trees, the behavior of animals and other features of the environment.

For example, due to the abundance of light and heat in the summer from the southern side, berries and fruits mature more quickly and have a more saturated coloring on their side facing this side. On the freshly piloted trees on the south side of the ring wider than the north. This is due to the same abundance of sunlight and heat.

There are other signs of determining the sides of the horizon. The anthills on the north side are steeper, and from the southern side they are gently sloping. It is also believed that icicles are more often formed from the southern side of the roof.

If there are pine trees next to them, it is easy enough to identify them south. From this side their trunks will be lighter, the bark is coarser. And also there will be much more resinous streaks on it than on the northern side of the tree. Grass in summer is greener in the south, and turns yellow in the north.

The most popular method is to pay attention to the amount of moss on the stones and trunks of trees. It is believed that these plants like to settle on the north side.

Lichens and mosses

Defining the signs of the horizon, you need to use complex results. This is especially true of natural phenomena and plant life.

Earlier we mentioned the most common way of finding the northern side. It consists in the fact that you just need to look at the tree trunk or stone. Moss should be on the north side. But if it really is, you are lucky. This happens once for a hundred trees, or even more. Why is it so? What is the reason?

It's simple. These plants like shadow and moisture. It is assumed that it is the northern side that forms such a microclimate. But in the forest, in fact, completely different conditions. It all depends on the terrain, surrounding water bodies or mountains.

In addition, you can be near the edge of the forest. Do not pay attention to the cutting and guided by the position of moss and lichens on the trees mark the north. Before that, the trunks that you see were in the shade in the depths of the forest. It was only after cutting down that they turned out to be a suburb.

The same applies to the buildings we mentioned earlier. Traditionally, they should be built the way we mentioned, but today everything is changing. Some architect decided to innovate and make the door elsewhere.

So be sure to use the signs in the complex, and better take a compass with you.

Lettuce

There are enough extravagant ways to determine the horizon with the sides of the light. This includes the so-called "compass plants". They usually have one or more permanent features that are gradually fixed with their growing up.

For such plants, for example, includes compass lettuce. Outwardly it looks like a very large dandelion with small yellow flowers. Over time, they, like the younger brother, become fluff-parachutes.

However, he is not at all a relative of an ordinary dandelion. Rather, his 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 find its thickets, and the roads have separate plants.

Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it hides the delicate surface of leaves from the sun's rays. Lettuce unfolds them to one side. And when the plant is old enough, they freeze in this position. Not always, but very often the leaves indicate the line from north to south.

If you decide to use this method alone, it is better to find a thicket of lettuce. Because a single plant can be an exception and will confuse you.

Sunflower

Now we will study the last "vegetative" way of determining the direction of the sides of the horizon. For this, we need one, and preferably a few near-growing sunflowers.

From the school bench, children know that the plant turns after the sun. That is, in the morning it looks to the east, and towards evening turns to the west side.

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 with time, when a flower plate appears from the bud and forms a flower, 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 place, then the flower will be directed towards the north-east or east.

If there are obstacles next to each other, the sunflower will look solely to the side where the first rays come from. In this case, you can not rely on it.

Modern technology

Modern technology allows you to navigate the terrain only on the screen of the device. It's about a professional navigator or a regular mobile phone with the Internet.

However, the reality is that the network does not catch everywhere. That's why even GPS should be turned on before entering the forest to mark the place where it will be necessary to return. For example, you stand near the first line of trees and, judging by the device, look to the southeast. So you will return to the north-west. This direction we also remember.

The second important point. If the connection suddenly disappeared and the navigator or card is no longer active, an unusual solution will help. Turn on the mobile phone in the "alarm clock" analog dial. Now you have an electronic version of the clock with arrows. And then we proceed 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 surely come in handy for mushroom pickers, hunters, lovers of wild rest or travelers.