AY Honors/Camping/No compass

Finding Polaris

North Star

In the northern hemisphere on a clear night you can determine which direction is north by finding Polaris (the North Star). You can find Polaris by following the two "pointer stars" in the Big Dipper. Unfortunately, this method is only effective on clear nights.

Using a Watch

You can use an analog watch to figure out which way is south during the day. To do this, it is easiest if you remove the watch from your wrist first. Hold the watch so that the face is pointing upwards. Then rotate it until the hour hand points to the sun. You can use a blade of grass to cast a shadow on the watch face to make this easier - just line the hour hand up with the shadow. Once the hour hand is pointing towards the sun, you can find south by bisecting the angle between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock position. In other words, if it is 4:00pm, south will lie in the 2:00 o'clock direction (because 2:00 is halfway between 4:00 and 12:00). At 7:00 am, south will lie in the 9:30 direction (because 9:30 is halfway between 7:00 and 12:00).

Using a shadow

Find a straight stick at least 12 inches long (30 cm) and drive it into the ground such that it points directly at the sun. You can tell the stick is pointing directly at the sun because its shadow will disappear. Then wait until the earth rotates enough so that you can see the shadow. The shadow will point directly east.