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| It is equally useful to he able to orientate yourself at night
without the use of a compass. This section deals with the method of finding
True North in the northern hemisphere with the aid of the stars. |
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| In latitudes less then 60 degrees the Pole Star (Polaris)
is never more than 3 degrees away from True North. As a result you will
be able to easily orientate yourself if you can be identify the Pole Star.
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| Unfortunately, the Pole Star can he rather difficult to find
as it is not very bright, nor does it stand out from other stars around
it. Once found, you can orientate yourself as shown below. |
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| There is, however, an excellent 'sign post' in the sky that
will show us where to find the Pole Star. This 'sign post' is a well known
group of stars known as the Plough - easily recognised and so called due
to it's shape, which is similar to an old fashioned plough. Look below to
see the shape of the Plough and note how the seven stars are grouped to
form the Handle, Plough and Pointers. The Pointers, as the term implies,
point towards the Pole Star and act as the 'sign post' in the sky. As a
further aid to locating the Pole Star from the Pointers, the distance between
the Pole Star and its nearest pointer is four times the distance between
the two pointers. |
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| The Pole Star is really a very unusual star. Firstly, It is
the only star that always lies in the direction of True North. Secondly,
it is the only star that does not move in the sky. Thirdly, all other stars
in the sky appear to rotate around it. Because all other stare move round
the Pole Star, we cannot expect to find the Plough the 'right way up' all
the time. See below. The Plough may he below the Pole Star and 'right way
up', or above it and 'upside down' or at any position in between. However,
the Pointers will always show you the position of the Pole Star. |
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