Entries tagged "west"
2013-02-27
My thanks to Leon Winnert – a double Natural Navigator course alumnus no less! – for taking the time to research church alignment in his area.
His findings are interesting and urge caution on placing too many eggs in the W-E church and graveyard alignment basket.
This is true of all natural navigation observations taken in isolation and there are anomalies in all methods, including the sun and stars.
However, I was particularly interested to note that there was a pattern to the anomalies he found – patterns to the break in patterns – wheels within…
2012-11-29
I took this photo in Chichester the other day, at midday.
Chichester has four main streets, North, East, South and West. (A fairly appropriate home city for me.)
You can probably eliminate a couple of those quite quickly, but which of the remaining ones is it?
It's not a great photo, taken on my iPhone whilst walking, but there are a couple of good clues.
I'll update with an answer in a few days.
Update, spoiler alert:
We are looking due south on North Street.
The clues are: the midday sun plus…
2012-05-11
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In these four pictures we are looking at the same beech tree. See if you can work out which way you are looking in each picture. If you hover your mouse over each picture it should give you the answer.
If it has been a bit quiet on the blog recently, it's because it has been a very busy time for the last…
2012-01-30
I'm just back from some micronavigation in the Black Mountains in Wales.
I should get a chance to blog in more detail in time, but for now I just wanted to share a couple of nice clues I found in the light snow and ice I walked amongst.
The first photo shows the first snow I encountered on a climb out of the Vale of Ewyas. We are looking east in this picture, the only snow to have survived the thawing warmth of the day are the thin strips hiding in the shade on the south…
2012-01-22
Last night I caught a few minutes of a programme on BBC4, called 'Unnatural Histories.'As so often seems to be the case, a short stroll from the mainstream channels uncovered rough diamonds.In the programme, an aerial shot showed us clearly visible patterns in the earth, patterns that were partly concealed at ground level by dense undergrowth. The narrator explained that we were looking at 'geoglyphs' in the Amazon rainforest. Geoglyphs are shapes that have been deliberately formed in the land by the hand of man.Like many pilots, I have come to love the way it is possible in the air…
2010-07-23
I love the idea that the moon is trying to tell us where the sun is hidingIn this photograph, which I took a few days ago, the moon is chasing a recently set sun and has begun its own journey down towards the western horizon. You can see the sun's bright light reflecting vividly off the right-hand, western side of the moon. The light gets brighter towards the edge, until it reaches a burning white at the edge itself.It is almost as though the moon is trying to say, 'You're getting warmer!'
2010-06-25
My thanks to everyone who came to my talk last night at the Weald and Downland Museum. What a wonderful place to spend a summer's evening, I recommend a visit to anyone who has yet to sample its delights.On a different note, I received a fascinating letter recently from someone who has read the book. They wrote to me with an unusual observation.I have touched the phenomenon of the 'green flash' at sunset in this blog and elsewhere, it is well documented and well heard-of. My correspondent is keen to learn more about something different and since I have…
2009-05-27
The Gooleys were camping on the Isle of Wight over the weekend. It was great weather, the few hours of rain that are necessary to make it feel like proper British camping kept themselves to late at night and early in the morning, which was considerate. A few observations will creep into the blog in due course, but to save me a bit of time as I work to catch up on some emails, below is one that artfully saved me the need to blog properly. Thank you, Rob.Tristan,I hope you are well.Emily and I attended your course at West…
2009-04-22
I can remember sitting at a restaurant in the small and perfectly formed fishing village of Trehiguier in southern Brittany last July. I had my back to the sun, which was setting behind the row of houses behind me. I watched the crisp edge of a chimney corner move upwards and to the right as the sun slipped down and to the left behind me. My poor wife had to watch me gauging the sun with a fist and then outstretched fingers and then listen to me predict when the chimney shadow would reach our table.Last night my wife was…
2009-03-23
As we move on away from the equinox I thought I would post this photo of the lines made by the shadow tip from a stick (or in this case a kids swingball!).These two lines are from the shadows approaching noon and only one day apart. Since it is the equinox, they are near exact east/west lines. The gap between the chalk lines is at its greatest at the equinox and closes to near zero at the solstices.On a slight tangent, it was a very similar method, ie. measuring the length of the shadows…
2008-09-22
At 15.44 (GMT) this afternoon the sun crosses the celestial equator. It is the autumnal equinox. What on earth has that got to do with the price of toast, I hear you ask. Well amongst other things it means that today is one of only two days this year that the sun rises and sets due east and west.Equinox, mmm, equinox, lovely word. Did you know that it comes from the Latin words for 'equal' and 'night', because on the equinoxes everywhere in the world experiences the same amount of day and night-time?
2008-09-08
This is a picture I took about half an hour ago and it is one of those that might be dismissed by those not trained in the dark arts as a 'typical English country scene'. With closer inspection it yields navigational fruit aplenty.
The foreground shadow confirms that the sun is no longer visible from this viewpoint, but the direction of the early evening sun is easy to detect from the long shadows in the middle ground. We are therefore looking south.
The smoke from the two fires reveals that the wind is light and variable. In…
