I'd appreicate your thoughts on using the North Star to navigate at night.

What should the hiker consider?

Thanks in advance.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Cloud cover.

Hemisphere?

How to locate it. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't the brightest star in the sky.

Here's a website to get you started:
http://souledout.org/nightsky/bigdippernavigation/bigdippernavigation.html

I am a firm believer in knowing the night sky, especially the Big Dipper and the NS. It has come in handy for me when navigating in areas where local variation (iron in lava flows was deflecting the needle).

If you are ever steering a ship at night, it is much easier to pick a star that is on your course, and steer by that, rather than constantly consulting the ship's compass. Over a few hours, you may need to change stars, but that is easy to accomplish (as long as cloud cover doesn't interfere).

If there are clouds present, it really helps to know some of the other constellations to at least determine approximate directions. This requires study before hand.

It's not available for iPhone, only Android. There is, however, http://www.google.com/sky/, which works for my iPhone and my PC.

We're using Google's Sky Map with my new Android tablet. I's pretty darned cool and is really making it easier for DS to learn.

Give yourself a lot of time learning celestial nav and practice it when you know where you are and where you're going (with primary nav available). See what happens when you go with celestial nav, only using map/compass/GPS as a back-up when you go off course. Counting on it as a back-up when you haven't really practiced it is a bad way to find out what you don't know.

North star nav is great - if you are going North. Failing that, have a map, compass, flashlight and maybe a GPS. Terrain association at night is really tricky.

Just sayin

There are a number of books out there which talk about celestial and natural navigation, such as: The Natural Navigator: A Watchful Explorer's Guide to a Nearly Forgotten Skill by Tristan Gooley and Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass Harold Gatty (although this book is a bit older). Understanding the environment you are going into before you go, such as prevailing winds, constellations which should be visible at that time of year, animal habits etc, is very important to navigate properly. I recommend these books, but think about your environment and what works for you.

I ordered the book a few days ago. Looking forward to reading it.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

One thing about hiking and navigating at night to consider are the benefits of using natural illumination as much as possible. Ideally I like to hike from the day through dusk into the night so my eyes are as dark adapted as possible. This helps in perceiving distant land forms by which one might be navigating.

It is surprisingly bright at night if one is fully dark adapted. Under ideal conditions (full moon overhead), have been able to comfortably read a newspaper. A light should be readily available, of course, but use the dimmer settings first. Of course, I honed my night hiking skills when "dim flashlight" was a highly redundant statement. The only other kind available was a nonworking flashlight.

Quark 1xAA is a dim flashlight in Moonlight mode -- - 0.2 lumens for 10 days on one AA battery.

The north star Polaris is a useful navigational tool. It certainly is not the brightest star in the northern sky, but it is surrounded by fairly dark space at its location.

Try using the following free software to see the stars and understand their movements:

http://stellarium.org/

It's pretty user-friendly software, and will certainly get your oriented with the directions of bright stars, the planets, the Sun and the Moon.

Once you know Polaris ... you also know your latitude. Just measure the height of Polaris above the horizon in degrees, and that is also the latitude of your location in the northern hemisphere. There are fine-tuned corrections if you want exact numbers (typically only sailors using celestial navigation care about exact stuff), but the system works well.

You can also get the north-south line from the shadow of the Sun when it is at the highest point in the sky. This system works well if you are further north that 30 degrees N, or further south than 30 degrees S. Be aware that the zenith of the Sun does not generally occur exactly at noon - so if you want a really good estimate for the north-south direction you need to know the time when the Sun is at its highest point. If you just use the shadow of the Sun at noon, you should be able to get north-south to within about 10 degrees.

There's a lot you can do with the stars, Sun and Moon - if you take the time to learn the way they move.

The main disadvantage of all these techniques is that you need a clear sky ... or at least a sky that has some gaps in cloud cover.

Good luck!

Pete2

I like to practice by always trying to find the NS when I'm out at night. A couple of other constellations that can help you find the NS are cassiopeia, it looks like a W. The top of the W open towards the NS. Also, orion can be used but its a little trickier. You take the shorter side 'foot' and 'arm' star and trace through them and thay point to the north star. It gets tricky when orion is lower in the sky. It helps to trace the path in an arc. Imagine the sky as a dome and trace the along the dome. Both take practice since the NS isn't the brightest star, and practce will help you recognize the NS based on its brightness.

Hope this helps.

I prefer to sleep at night. One of the pleasures I take in camping is that of going to bed at sundown and sleeping until sunrise (unless an early start on the trail is required). I've done virtually no hiking at night.

I comprehend the arguments for knowing how to find and use the North Star but haven't yet found a practical use.

(This includes courses in celestial navigation -the theory- followed by 5 years in submarines where we never even tried it in practice. The sextant was inventoried annually to be sure no one had stolen it.)

If one hikes long enough, there will come a time when you will be watching a beautiful sunset, some ways from your destination, and Robert Frost's line will come to mind - "miles to go before I sleep."

More often than not, hiking at night on SAR operations was routine.