Sirius is South at Midnight on New Year’s Eve
The brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, will be due south at midnight on New Year’s Eve. This is true every year.* Depending on…
Tag: finding direction
How to Find Your Way with Scents and Smell
Wildflowers help us to navigate in so many ways. Look at the wild marjoram, Origanum vulgare, above. You may have noticed that the stems are…
Tuareg Jewellery Compass?
My thanks to Adele in Australia for this fascinating email. Hi Tristan,I just read your article on navigating the Sahara with Tuareg tribesmen – fascinating,…
The Gegenschein
Whenever light hits particles, either in our atmosphere or in space, some of that light is scattered and some of it gets reflected back relatively…
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…
Tin Bird Trails
We may never know the exact method that the earliest explorers used to find their way, but there is a friendly finger of suspicion that…
Finding South Using the Stars
Finding South Using the Stars In the northern hemisphere Polaris, the North Star, tends to get all the attention when it comes to finding direction…
Tongues of Ice
I’m just back from six days in Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands. In the foreground of the first picture you can probably make out some…
Ground Moisture
Happy New Year! At times like this, I sometimes wonder what the Earth and Sun would say to each other if they could talk. They…
Equinox Trivia
Happy Equinox All! At nine minutes past three this morning, GMT, the sun was overhead the equator. To celebrate, here are a few things that…
Finding South with Orion’s Sword
On my night walk earlier, the stars were on great form. I like to use lots of different techniques for fun and practice, but Orion…
Grave Lichens
Churches are well worth a minute of navigational inquiry. The church itself is likely to show a preference for an east-west alignment, with the altar…
It’s Back in Stock!
After selling out in under 48 hours on Amazon and elsewhere, the book has been reprinted and is now available again at most shops –…
I Caught a Glimpse of Orion Last Night…
…and he was high in the sky, which reminded me of one of the simplest and most beautiful of natural navigational celestial techniques. Orion is…