The natural Navigation: The Right Course, Naturally

Just managed to snap the ‘supermoon’ as it rose above the woodland to the east of me. This photo was taken tonight at 19.03 GMT.

Tonight’s moon is the first time that a full moon has coincided with perigee, that is the moment when the moon is closest in its orbit, for 18 years. This is no ordinary perigee either, the moon will be 30,000 miles closer to Earth than usual. The result is what has been nicknamed a ‘supermoon’.

The best time to appreciate its enlarged size is when it is close to your horizon, rising or setting. Since it is a full moon this will be close to the time of your sunset and then sunrise.

There are some fascinating musings in todays Telegraph about any possible influence of this supermoon on tectonic activity, of greatest interest of course: earthquakes.

I have just been watching a beautiful full moon rising above the trees in the east. It was shrouded in layers of cirrostratus for a few minutes, but then rose above them.

In winter full moons rise north of east, in summer they rise south of east. They rise further from east the nearer we get to the solstices. The full moon always behaves in the opposite way to the sun, in time and direction, as it is opposite the sun in its cycle.

Another very enjoyable Beginner’s Guide to Natural Navigation course at West Dean College on Saturday. There were sailors, walkers, a forager and an army officer among the ever-varied student backgrounds. My thanks to all for coming.

Last night, shortly after 10.30, I took this photograph of the moon rising above the woods and emerging from behind thin clouds. It looks very much like a full moon, but is actually one day after full, a waning moon. It does highlight the difficulty of judging the phase of the moon accurately.

From an aesthetic perspective there is no need to be able to judge the moon’s phase, but if you are trying to use the ‘phase method’ of finding direction from the moon then it is vital. I go into a lot of detail of this method in the book, because it is very satisfying but no less challenging. In…

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Welcome to all BBC Radio 4 listeners who have just navigated their way to this website from the full moon ramble that I enjoyed with Clare Balding.

There are lots of places to explore on this website if you are looking for more information about the wonderful world of natural navigation, the courses that are available or my book on the subject.

It would be great to meet you so if you are within reach of west London tonight, I am giving a talk at The Travel Bookshop this evening (Thursday 17th) at 7pm. Details and tickets can be found on their website or by calling the bookshop on 0207 229 5260.

Hope you enjoy!

If you did not hear the Radio 4 Ramblings programme but would like to then you can by clicking here.

Details of some other natural navigation features on TV, Radio and…

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Another very enjoyable Beginner’s Guide to Natural Navigation course at the Royal Geographical Society yesterday. The diversity of interests and experiences never fails to amaze me; from desert wanderers to cruise ship sailors and even a sailor from a tall ship in the Pacific. Wonderful!

It was a beautiful full moon last night and I got to experiment with a new lens that I have bought. Still a long way to go until I take a photo of the moon that I am happy with, but always learning which is satisfying.

The phase of the moon appears the same all over the world, but the orientation changes depending on your latitude. In other words, a full moon will be full all over the world, but its features may appear upside down from the opposite hemisphere. When high in the sky, crescent moons will appear closer to ‘vertical’ at higher…

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The title of this post is not, for once at least, a reference to my style of blog-writing, but to the BBC Radio 4 program hosted by Clare Balding.

On Wednesday night I joined Clare and the Ramblings team for a walk on the South Downs Way; we headed west from Amberley, finishing at the Bignor Hill car park. We were treated to stars, planets and a full moon. I’ll let you know when it is airing, but should be sometime in June.

I felt hugely privileged and honoured throughout the walk, as early on Clare revealed that she has been embarking on walks for the Ramblings series for nearly 10 years, but this was the first ever night walk.

Did you know that in the UK a full moon rises close to southeast in summer and nearer to northeast in winter? (If you find viewing the full moon…

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If you are feeling peculiar then it is probably best not to venture outside tonight. The gravitational pull of the full moon’s alignment with the sun might have strange effects as it pulls on the water in your brain. Or so the ancients believed.

Alternately, you might want to do something that GPS users would see as a symptom of madness and use it to find east in the early evening, south at midnight and west before dawn.

I took this photo about ten minutes ago (18.23 GMT), looking east.

This is the full moon from two nights ago, rising amongst the clouds. The picture was taken at about 11 o’ clock and so we are looking close to southeast.