Sun Compass Southern Hemisphere

Everyone knows the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Using the shadow and stick method you can also get an accurate north/south line and determine your principle compass points.

Most survival manuals (and other Youtube videos) show this technique as it is used in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the Southern Hemisphere the sun moves through the northern sky at noon. The noontime shadows are pointing south rather than north and they move counterclockwise. This can mess up the internal sense of directon from people from the northern hemisphere as their intuitive sense of north and south gets flipped on its head.

This same method can be used in the Northern Hemisphere, just remember that the base of your shortest noontime shadow is pointing south and the tip is pointing north.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Sun
• compass
• solar
• navigation
• shadow
• stick
• southern
• hemisphere
• wilderness
• survival
• bushcraft

[pcw4711]

that's gotta be weird with the sun in the north

[Colhane]

I found it very disorienting when I first moved there. The better your natural sense of direction the worse the effect seems to be. People who normally have no sense of natural orientation don't even seem to notice.

[holymountains818]

i find it pointless doing this method if you have a working watch that you can use instead.... watch if more accurate because the shadow shows true north not magnetic one like a compass.

[1Joyeux]

also, the Sun doesn't always pass through the northern sky at noon in most of Brazil, for locations north of the Tropic of Capricorn. You will find that during your summer months (21 Sep -21 March) the Sun will pass South of your Southern latitude (in Rio it actually passes about 1 degree South from 7 Dec to about 4 Jan)

[1Joyeux]

12:00 noon readings won't always face true N-S. There are certain days of the year it will (Solstice's) and other days of the year they can be as much as 17 minutes off (Equinox's)

[Carmievg]

If you put that arrow into the ground so it has almost no shadow, pointing directly at the sun, you'll have a shadow to the east of the arrow in just a few minutes.

[Shelbywrightmate]

And if you have no watch, just mark it regularly throughout the day to get a reasonable East - West line, or, if you need more precision, using a leaky water container that empties in about 10 mins (like an old sand egg timer), add a marker stone every time it empties, starting at what you estimate to be 11 am. refilling the water container each time and repeating, then using a bit of string/vine/stick, measure the stone nearest to the stick (the shortest shadow) for your North - South line.

[asheradensein]

Does this give you an east/west line any time during the day, or does it have to be around noon?

[ervandsarkisyan]

5 stars indeed

[hobbexp]

nice move