The Woolly Compass
On exposed hillsides, sheep take shelter behind gorse bushes. Over time this kills the lowest branches, creates patches of bare earth and pieces of straggling…
Tag: compass
Choose Lichens Over Mosses for Effective Navigation
Mosses get all the press, but lichens are the stars when it comes to effective natural navigation. In the video above I look at the…
In Nature, Everything is a Compass!
Nothing in nature is symmetrical. When we stop to ask ourselves what causes the asymmetries we find outdoors, suddenly everything we see becomes a compass.…
How to Use the UK Military’s Survival Compass to Tell the Time
A guest blog by John Hudson FRGS, the UK military’s Chief Survival Instructor. Direction finding in the military these days uses lots of technology, but…
Some Trees Were Born to be Compasses
See this page for more on how to navigate using plants.
The Joy of Signs in Spring
by Tristan Gooley Time outdoors has become precious and there’s a joy in this. We’re all about to get better at appreciating the beauty and…
Using A Tree Stump as a Compass on Hills
Regular readers will be familiar with the idea that a tree stump can be used as a compass. In trees exposed to plenty of sun,…
The Mongolian Ger Compass
Mongolian traditional homes are structures like yurts and are known as ‘gers’. The doors of gers face south. This is a useful compass or GPS…
How to Find Your Way with Tree Leaves
Earlier I showed how it is possible to find your way using the colour of tree leaves. Now I’d like to show you how to…
How to Make a Compass out of a Tree Stump
Very nice email in with a helpful photo: I was stargazing this past week in the Davis Mountains in Texas. I had been pointing out…
How to Navigate with Spiders’ Webs
Animals help us navigate in lots of ways. They form both compasses and maps for us. The map is formed in a similar way to…
The Colour of Mud as a Compass
Readers of my books or this blog will be well aware by now that we should expect to find more puddles on the shaded southern…
How to Make a Compass Out of Sand, Snow or Dust
Whenever you’re on sand or snow, tune in to the direction the most recent winds have been blowing from and you’ll find yourself surrounded by…
Navigation on Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition
There was an interesting article in Navigation News recently, The Long Journey Home, which looked at Amundsen’s navigation techniques on his South Pole expedition. The…
How to use TV Aerials as a Compass
I have written in many places about how TV satellite dishes can be used to help find direction, in the UK they normally point close…
Great Circles
Don’t look at the photo just yet! Thanks to National Maritime Museum members who came to my talk in the planetarium at the Royal Observatory…
Frost Shadows and Compasses
It is that time of year when nature likes to get out her frost compasses for us to admire. I took this photo last Friday…
Prickly Lettuce, A Compass Plant
Prickly lettuce is known to some of its navigating friends as the ‘compass plant’ and to its Roman friends as ‘lactuca serriola’. In truth it…
The Cloud Compass
Happy Winter Solstice One and All! Here’s an interesting solstice fact for you: the Earth is actually receiving more solar radiation at this time of…
Underground Navigation
I am spending a lot of time at the moment helping the BBC with a new series and have spent the last few days in…
Sarah Outen
On Friday I enjoyed a warming cup of hot chocolate with adventurer and ocean rower extraordinaire, Sarah Outen. We arranged to meet in Brighton and…