Certainly one of the most important things
Certainly one of the most important things. Knowing your orientation can sometimes really be the difference between life and death.
You've probably heard stories about people who got lost in the wilderness and, because they couldn't find their way around or determine their direction, never came back.
It's very easy to get lost in nature, especially if the weather is bad: fog, rain, darkness... Don't think that this only happens to beginners or inexperienced people - even very experienced experts get lost, but it's not a big deal if you know how to orient yourself.
So now we're going to learn something about orientation, using several examples, so everyone will use the method that is easiest for them or that is possible in the given circumstances.
Mountains are favorite destinations for nature lovers. Hills are often covered with forest, so your field of vision is usually quite limited.
Finding the right path can be quite a challenge, but it is possible if you control yourself and stay calm… otherwise, you will panic and make mistakes.
The first tip is: stay focused and try to find out where you are. One of the simplest methods is to climb to the top of a hill or the tallest tree and observe the surroundings.
Notice a dominant point that will serve as a landmark for a while (a lone tree, a rock, a clearing, a house, an electric pole…) – anything that you will go towards and that you will not let out of your sight as you approach. It is important to go as straight as possible.
The direction is maintained by choosing a landmark. In this way, you will definitely end up somewhere, sooner or later. Old experienced mountaineers say: even a poorly chosen direction is better than no direction at all. It is a joke, but it is also true.
Once we determine the direction in which we should move, the clouds can help us further. Namely, the direction of cloud movement can remain unchanged for several hours, so we can take the direction of cloud movement as the direction of movement, the opposite direction or even transverse (left or right) to the direction of cloud movement. It can be especially useful in forests or thickets, when it is difficult to find a suitable landmark. If clouds are visible, they can also help at night.
If you are moving along mountain paths, they are most often marked because mountaineers often use them. They are marked with a red ring with a white circle in the center.
They are placed along the paths on trees, stone blocks and rocks and are usually written in oil paints. Paths can also be marked with white or red arrows and numbers that indicate the time needed to walk that path.
If you come across these markings, just follow them and you will surely get to a larger path or, even better, reach a mountain lodge.
However, if you do know where you started from and where you need to go, then you will be able to orient yourself very easily by determining the cardinal points. The problem remains, how to determine them if you don't have a compass?!
Determining the cardinal points using the sun and a clock
Place the clock in the palm of your hand, hold it horizontally and turn it so that the small hand points towards the sun. It is easier to turn the clock if you observe the sun on the glass of the clock, and you should turn it until the direction of the sun coincides with the small hand.
Then, halve the angle between the small hand and the number 12 on the clock and you will get - south. In that direction, a suitable landmark is chosen towards which to move.
North is in the extension of the imaginary direction that connects the clock and the chosen landmark towards the south. If we remain facing south, our right is west, and our left is east.
Geographic orientation using the sun, clock and shadow
To determine the cardinal points in this way, place your wristwatch or pocket watch horizontally (on your palm, stump, ground, etc.) and place a pencil, matchstick, straw, etc. vertically in the center. The object will cast its shadow in the direction opposite to the sun.
Once you have done this, turn the clock until the shadow covers the small hand of the clock. Then bisect the angle between the direction of the small hand (which is now the direction of the shadow) and the number 12 with an imaginary line, and it will show the direction of north in the extension.
You should know that this direction will be to the right of the direction of the hand in the morning, and to the left of them in the afternoon.
Orientation using the sun and the exact time
It can be considered that the sun is in the east at 6 am, in the south at 12 pm, and in the west at 6 pm. In those 12 hours, it travels one semicircle, or expressed in degrees – 180 degrees. If we divide those 180 degrees by 12 hours (the duration of the journey), we get that the sun travels 15 degrees in 1 hour.
How does that look in practice? For example, it is 9 o'clock in the morning and you want to determine the geographical orientation at that moment. We said that the sun will be in the south at 12 o'clock, and that is in three hours. So the sun is now at 3×15 degrees, i.e. 45 degrees from that direction. On a piece of paper, you need to draw an angle of 45 degrees, and direct the left arm of that angle towards the sun.
The right arm of the angle will show us where the sun will be in three hours, and that is the direction of the south. If the orientation is done in the afternoon at 3 o'clock, everything is the same except that the right arm is then directed towards the sun and the left arm is and will show where the sun was three hours ago, i.e. at 12 o'clock. We have already said that it is then in the south direction.
This method would not be particularly interesting if it did not allow us to determine the exact direction of north at any time of the day if we know the exact time. Let's assume that it is 4 p.m. Four hours have passed from 12 to 4 p.m.
During this time, the shadow of a tree, factory chimney, telegraph pole, etc. has moved 60 degrees (4×15). All we have to do is construct an angle of 60 degrees on a piece of paper and make its right arm coincide with the shadow of the selected object. The left arm will show where north is.
Orientation at night
At night, we orient ourselves using the stars and the moon. The full moon has the opposite position in relation to the sun. Therefore, the south (where the sun is at noon) corresponds to the north, which the full moon occupies at midnight. In the morning the moon is in the west, and in the evening the east. The cardinal points can be determined by the clock and the full moon as well as by the clock and the sun. Only here instead of the south, the north is found first.
On a clear night, the direction of the north can be determined quite accurately by the North Star or the Polar Star.
It is located in the constellation of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) and is easiest to find by the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).
The Big Dipper consists of seven clearly visible stars, arranged in such a way that they give the image of a cart viewed from the side.
The sides of the "car" are formed by four stars, and the "rod" by three stars. The Little Dipper also consists of four stars in the "car" and three stars in the "rod". The star at the very top of the rod of the Little Dipper is the North Star.
But since the Small Wheel is a bit harder to see, it is best to start from the last page of the Big Wheel: five lengths of that page are added to its existing length, and at the end of the page thus extended is Severnjača. The North Star is the brightest star in that part of the sky (sometimes visible even during the day), and it marks the direction of the north.
