Flowers and Blazes
A walk in the woods yesterday revealed some natural and unnatural clues. This primrose, the only one in the area, was unsurprisingly in a south-facing…
Tag: Sun
Fog Navigation
This morning brought with it a nice thick radiation fog, which the sun will probably burn off soon. There is not forecast to be much…
Obama Furious with Brits after SatNav Embarrassment
President Obama was visibly furious with his British escort team after his secure cavalcade accidentally drove into the tiny Devon village of Clovelly. The armour-plated…
Moisture Compass
In this photo you can see the dew that the sun has not yet burnt off. The shadow itself is mostly moving right to left…
Equinoctial Sunrise
It is the morning after the equinox and not a bad one either. The sun rises due east on the equinox, but the daily difference…
The Great Shadow Stick Riddle
Although I occasionally get labelled as Mr. Anti-anything-modern-and-would-rather-eat-a-pair-of-hemp-pants-than-use-a-GPS*, the truth is different. I do use a GPS, quite regularly in fact and always take one…
The Patience of Stonehenge
The Gooley family spent Sunday afternoon mucking about at Stonehenge and then heating baked beans and pasta on the VW campervan stove. A modern, but…
Sun Patterns and Natural Randomness
Time for a bit of ramble. At the heart of natural navigation there is potential for conflict. If the sun did not behave with rational,…
Rosy Fingers or Urban Glow
Everyone who starts their day outdoors welcomes dawn, but for natural navigators it is an important time that should be both enjoyed and absorbed. Sunrise…
Navigator Chickens
The title of this post is a little misleading, but I like it and so it stays. It is that time of year when we…
Winter Solstice
Today is the winter solstice. I would love to give you a long blog entry, but unfortunately this is not possible as I am too…
The Sun’s Shadow in Winter and Summer
The last course stirred up some healthy discussion about the difference between the sun’s summer and winter arcs in the sky. The arcs are actually…
Amaizing Awareness, Corngratulations!
Regular readers may recall how my chilli plants demonstrated an aversion to wind and cold. Yesterday I spent a full and enjoyable day with some…
A Rare Treat and a Slippery Friend
My wife and I spent nearly all the weekend on the water, which will be a rare treat until our boys are a bit older.…
Subtle shades
A fresh peach of a dawn this morning. The contrails in the first photo have a clear southeast track to them which is not unexpected…
Shadow Seeker
For the next six months the sun will always have some south in it when viewed from Britain. It will rise south of east and…
Equinox – lovely word.
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…
Dawn Today
The Natural Navigator’s day often starts with a quick check that the sun is rising roughly where it should be – blog readers will be…
An Old Friend
Bit of an early start this morning for a busy day in London, but there was consolation in a constellation. Forgive me. I saw Orion…
A Rich Soup
I regularly find myself balancing the scientific explanations for something, natural observations of the same thing, historical accounts and even folklore. It can be a…
Equal joys, Different Reasons
Everywhere I go at the moment I am reminded of cycles. Not the type that the Dutch and Boris Johnson are so keen on, no,…