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Navigating by the Stars with Polaris

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Mitch, Mitchell, Alone, History, Channel, Survival, Nativesurvival.

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Video Transcription

hey it's mr. needs bottle for a navigate using the Stars a key component is finding Polaris the North Star stay tuned okay it's a Polaris the North Star so if we can find this star and amongst all the others then we know which direction is north absolutely huge so how do I do that well one of the ways to do that is to find get a constellations that are nearby because remember all the stars revolve around Polaris okay so they're going to be nearby you don't know what angle they're on you have to look nearby and you'll find one of these constellations it's going to be around the wheel of the north star for sure now one of them is incredibly common a lot of people know about it it's called Ursa Major also called Big Bear also called the Big Dipper so the Big Dipper looks something like this something like that now you notice that the last to form a line right the pliers so that's a real easy way to find Pilatus you can find the Big Dipper no matter where it is in its revolution going around counterclockwise around Polaris these two stars are always going to be facing it it's always going to be facing the Latics making a line to it so no matter where it is if you can draw a line you're going to be pretty pretty close to Polaris ok so now almost on the exact opposite side just a little shy of it as another constellation called Cassiopeia it looks something like this 32 so it's kind of like a w or an M depending on how you look at it now what you want to do is basically look at this star and how these 02 are in front of it you can make a straight line in between them that will be just north of it okay so what I like to do is just remember that direction just like that except they go from the bottom star so if i go from the bottle star push me pretty close to polaris puts me pretty close I mean it's almost it's almost dead on but it's cassie pier is not dead on like like the Big Dipper is Big Dipper it's like a straight line you run right into it no issues Cassiopeia is off a tiny tiny bit and again as it goes around the same exact situation this whole thing just turns like this you know so it was like over here somewhere it would just be you know the bottom would be here and we had those two you look something like that so again if you fall straight line get too close get go by the bud by the bottom one pretty much puts it on just a tiny tiny that off it's like a degree to someone at that big of a deal so Big Dipper Cassiopeia very very easy ways to find Polaris now is actually a third constellation that I use and I don't use it that often because Big Dipper is pretty much dead giveaway right away it's the easiest one for me to see I usually just use Cassiopeia as verification of Big Dipper and make sure that everything is as it should be you know I check to see if I can see it on basically the opposite side if everything checks out I know I'm definitely looking at the North Star and I'm good to go but actually the North Star is part of its own grouping as well so let's talk about that now okay so we have letters then we'll start now Polaris is actually part of a group of starters that's called ursa minor or a little bear or the Little Dipper okay so it has a very similar shape to the Big Dipper but the handle is a different shape so the handle sit this is no stop clocks right there it's the last star on the animals and we have something that looks like this that Little Dipper so it has a curve it has a little dipper at the end and now one of the tricks is that this arch if you keep following it you should run into the big dipper's last handle how cool is that so that'll make it something like this so this is our big dipper pointing the polaris and if we follow the little dippers handle we end up at the last of the handle of the Big Dipper so is what it looks like sorry the Little Dipper you just follow that arch all the way down keep following it and you'll run into the last star and the handle of the Big Dipper which of course points out hilarious so it gives us three with a big dipper we have Cassiopeia on the opposite side and the little dipper gives us three constellations that work together so we can find the North Star Polaris okay so just to finish the trifecta Cassiopeia will be somewhere around here now the bottom star is slightly above the North Star so the bottom star should be above here

there we have it you follow the bottom star in the same direction as perpendicular to the other two now put you right on top of pull out so that's all free so Ron lit up look at plas the North Star use the Big Dipper or you can use Cassiopeia or you can use its own Little Dipper yeah it's a really good book for this technique is the stars guide by golden guide they have this technique with a show like right here a prominent constellation like this is the Big Dipper and they show other constellations in relation to it you know how lines are made to find other constellations that's the one that I showed you earlier to find Polaris right there Cassie p is on the other side so it's really really cool you know and it has them individually as well it starts a major I here Big Dipper eral going to Polaris so the circumpolar constellations it also shows Oh Ryan that's not the problem when there is right there so you can find everything that's nearby Orion as well so anyways really cool book has some useful info like that right there you know because then you can start you know really knocking out a whole bunch of constellations for accurately because you find one one prominent one that's easy to find I mean who doesn't know Big Dipper

in a line you know you find all the ones around it and obviously you want to use it for navigation as much as possible pretty cool little book okay so this is a great way to find the most are especially because using more than one constellation to do it so maybe the Big Dipper might be visible but Cassiopeia won't be vice versa little different things like that Little Dipper is not as bright as the others so you're not going to see it as easy as say the Big Dipper but it's great for verification and you never know what you might see that one instead of not the others right so by knowing three different constellations it really gives you a nice little tool box define the little stock and this can be a great technique that can really ease your anxiety and relax you especially if you're lost you know so you got lost and night has arrived you did all the right things you know okay i know i'm lost in you mark your position you built the shelter cuz you you know you're moving in a positive direction okay I'm going to relax I'm going on build a fire going to build a shelter I know I'm going to stay out here all night things like that right in that night knowing this can help you get your bearings all right so so so you can start to kind of piece together you know what may have happened or what direction you think that you should be going in the morning and of course when you see the Sun you know it's just going to help tie it all together you know because then you can use your your soul a navigation in conjunction with what you learned the night before you know see you putting all these pieces together and it really just is just information gathering you know because what's lost mean loss means I don't know what I should know you know it's I think I know where I am but I'm wrong well that means there's a lack of information there because you don't know where you are right so the first thing you start doing is gather information right you know we want to start gathering that night it can be doing this right so it's just an easy way to do it by constellations and using the relationship in between them this is mission is Bob appreciate your views companies sport see you the next one take

you

About the Author

NativeSurvival

NativeSurvival

Mitch is a Wilderness Living Skills Instructor, he has been featured on The History Channel's program "ALONE" and written articles for Outdoor Magazines; he owns and operates The Native Survival School which provides woodland living and survival classes, as well as offering quality outdoor gear he's designed. Defintely, he is a master at bushcraft's techniques.

You can find all his videos on his YouTube channel.

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