Finding north

Gaz

Ive no compass , so whats the best way to find North (accuratly).

Isnt there something about pointing the hour hand of your watch at the sun and then the 12 is north ..or something

Johnmb

12 is south, roughly, when you point the hour hand at the sun.

Tar.Aldarion

i think it was that you point the hour hand at the sun and half way between the hour hand and 12 is north.

Hagar

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

i think it was that you point the hour hand at the sun and half way between the hour hand and 12 is north.

Change that to south and I think you have it. After all at 12 noon both hands would be pointing at the sun ie due south.

Tar.Aldarion

oopsie!
was a bad film it was in anyway

Orion

That's not going to be completely accurate. 12 noon is not true noon. The sun is only directly south at true noon which is usually around 13:20 in Dublin. To find true noon add the sunrise time to the sunset time and halve it. An hour can make a big difference in the position of the sun.

Hagar

Dublin is approximately 6 degrees east of London, this equates to more or less a 24 minute difference not 1hr 20mins. Also all these shannaigans will only work when the time on the watch matches GMT. Perhaps thats where you got the extra hour? Are we looking for true north or magnetic north?

If it's overcast your bunched. What's the chances of it being sunny in Ireland on the day you leave home without your compass?

Orion

Hagar wrote:

Dublin is approximately 6 degrees east of London, this equates to more or less a 24 minute difference not 1hr 20mins. Also all these shannaigans will only work when the time on the watch matches GMT. Perhaps thats where you got the extra hour?

It's nothing to do with GMT or how far we are from London. The sun is directly south halfway through the day - which is the mid-point between sunrise and sunset. In Dublin this would be about 13:20 (give or take a few minutes) on any given day. Check the paper for the sunrise and sunset times and work it out for yourself. GMT is a man-made time. Mother Nature has her own clock

EamonnKeane

Macros42 wrote:

It's nothing to do with GMT or how far we are from London. The sun is directly south halfway through the day - which is the mid-point between sunrise and sunset. In Dublin this would be about 13:20 (give or take a few minutes) on any given day. Check the paper for the sunrise and sunset times and work it out for yourself. GMT is a man-made time. Mother Nature has her own clock

You're both wrong. It is to do with GMT. At noon the sun at Greenwich is due south. Dublin's 6 degrees west of it so at Dublin Noon it's 12:24 at Greenwich. But we're at Daylight Savings Time March to October so an hour is added to the clock. Sunrise and sunset vary with the seasons but middays are always 24 hours apart.

Hagar

Ok let's get this straight.
At the moment 13/9/2005 Ireland is not on Daylight Savings Time it is on British Summer Time ie GMT + 1.
Technically Daylight Savings Time is a term used in North America.
The Sun is actually only due south of Greenwich at noon on 21st / 22nd December. For practical purposes it is deemed to be due south at noon during the whole of the period between the end of October and end of March.
The watch we are using is presumably set to the correct time of day for Dublin. Therefore during the period from end October to end march March due south will be at 12:24. and for the rest of the year it will be at 13:24.

GMT is a man-made time. Mother Nature has her own clock

Sunrise and sunset vary with the seasons but middays are always 24 hours apart

Both statements are true in themselves but don't forget we're not using Mother Natures watch. We are using a man made watch which has been adjusted by us to fit our needs so we must make an equal but opposite adjustment to what the watch says to put us back in touch with the time by the Sun.

Herein ends the lecture.

whyulittle

Isn't there another way to do it though? As someone else mentioned, what about when it's cloudy? Some very McGyver-esque way using a pin in a pool of water or something!?

Orion

whyulittle wrote:

Some very McGyver-esque way using a pin in a pool of water or something!?

Sure. Get a pin and a magnet. Stroke the pin with the magnet 50 times in the same direction. The place it in water - or even better pure alcohol (lower surface tension). Then one end of it will point towards magnetic north.

Dummy

Question: How do you locate the North Star?

whyulittle

Picture looks backwards, but you get the idea:

http://www.suite101.com/files/topics/19259/files/BigDipCassArrows.JPG