Night Navigation

Most of guides on the net and in books are focused on info how to find North using stars.

Of course I’m including proper picture for it, but I think that people are not putting enough attention to this info.

When are people checking North ?
Usually when they are lost.
Whole idea of navigation is not to be lost.
If one is lost – info where north is is not enough to help.

Night navigation is not only about stars, every city is creating lights over the horizon,
trains or cars are making noise and we can use it as direction during the night.

If there is an airport around we can see direction of approaching planes.

Coming back to stars.

We are lost, we can see stars, we can find north … and we are still lost with this knowledge.

This is not the think we want.

Quite important is to make a habit for checking geographical directions on the go, BEFORE we are lost.

We need to know the map of our neighbourhood.

If we are prepared and we have paper version of the map (no way for batteries to be gone) its good to roughly know our position.
If one has a map and information where is north is not enough to use it.

Now usual info how to find north and northern star (or south).

Northern star (Polaris) marked on picture below, can be found at the end od Ursa Minor.

Take care and check it near your house is stars are visible.

On southern hemisphere above is not visible at all, you can see Southern Cross.

blaaaa….you can see….. I was many times on southern hemisphere and trying to see it.

Only using local knowledge of some Australian guy I was able to find it.

Key information is – Southern Cross looks exactly like on Australian flag.

Look south to find it…

Maps for GPS

 

For very long time I’m using Garmin devices.
This is not cause I like it but mostly because you got access to free maps.
In case of more remote, oversees trip local home map you can use in your car is not the best.
You can put your own maps in Garmin devices particularly created by other people.
For example on Iceland we were using:
http://www.ourfootprints.de/gps/mapsource-island_e.html

Last time I was looking for Pyrenees maps and I found very nice set for bikers:

http://openmtbmap.org/download/odbl/#map-data

For Poland I’m using

http://mapa.ump.waw.pl/ump-www/

For most people GPS is a device to find proper route.
I was always confused with this type approach.
The most important think you can find on your GPS is your current position.
Then you can find it on proper, paper based map bought in remote site.
If you can see map on your GPS – great – its easier

Why actually we should use GPS device comparing to smartphone with GPS ?
Three basic reasons:
1. Power supply
you can take spare AAA batteries for it
2. Maps – if you are not in range no maps.
3. Precision.

We should turn on GPS device only when stopping.
There are no devices on the market (yet) which can work on line for a week.

Picture – tent in the woods.
Tierra del Fuego 2001 – Patagonia
GPS helped us to find our place on the map.