How To Use Compasses?
No matter how much you have traveled or how well you know the roads, there is always great possibility of your getting lost. This especially concerns those who are not good at orienting themselves or determining where they are.
When you are lost there are two things that will give you a helping hand – your brain and a pocket compass.
Human brain is the greatest of all tools and devices, but sometimes even it can fail to serve you when most needed. In this case you will surely need a compass. That is the reason why you have to always keep it as an inseparable part of your hiking gear. You shouldn’t put it away even if you never use it. Who knows what can happen?
There are different types of compasses – lensatic, magnetic, protractor, gyrocompass, astrocompass and so on. When traveling mostly pocket compasses are used.
A pocket or a wrist compass (it is called so as it is tied to your wrist) is a magnetic compass. First magnetic compasses were used by Chinese fortune tellers for their predictions.
How to use a pocket compass? Many people say that a compass has a difficult mechanism and consequently it takes time to learn to use it. It’s true, but if you are lost and have the compass with you, then just look at where it points the North. After you see it, be sure that you will find your way.
When using the compass, you will come across Magnetic North and True North. As I already said you will need the Magnetic North which supposes that you have to clearly differentiate between these two concepts:
- Magnetic north – It is the direction toward which your compass needle rotates.
- True north – It is the direction in which our planet rotates.
Inside the compass you will notice an arrow, which is called a compass needle. Remember that this needle always shows where the magnetic north pole is.
You may ask me: “What do I need to do if I am not going to the North?”. Imagine that you were going to the South-East and you got lost. What to do? Hold the compass in your hand. Every pocket compass involves a rotating thing, which is called a compass housing and smoothly turn it until the needle points at South-East. Then as soon as you find the right direction, fix a certain point and go there. This is done to avoid the probability of going the wrong direction or losing the way again.
There are still a lot other points that can be discussed. But these were the ones that I had set for this post. So if you have further questions concerning compasses and their usage, you can just post a comment and I will answer you back.
Photo © geebee2007