Instant Sun Compass For Survival

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

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Video Transcription

hey check this out Manos geese were beautiful huh nice tight formation okay so the submission is survival today we're gonna go over an instant Sun compass stay tuned okay here's the deal basically the Sun rises in the east over here actually rises in the East sets in the west and it doesn't do in a straight line

it has a southern arc to it this is north south east west rises in the east it's low in the horizon so it doesn't go directly over it actually kind of goes like this almost sideways to us so because of that the shadow that you create with a Sun compass doesn't cast directly in a straight line if it did then Sun compass would be far more accurate because then you would have a spot here and say a spot right here and it'd be a dead straight line you put your little you put your stick right across another one perpendicular to it boom get east west line most self line your hundred percent ready to go that's not the case a Sun compass makes a li direction nor the lead southerly easterly westerly okay so that's caused by the southern arc that the Sun travels the Sun takes Sun doesn't go directly from east to west it actually gets to west by going south so because of that it's shadow instead of going straight across when it's here it's shadows over here now not directly on the line so it's shadow

kind of one of these okay so because of that because it directly matches it Wells going across so because of that when you put your sticks it's not quite that pronounced when you when you do your sticks you know you take a reading shadows here put a stick or rock whatever you want to do you know you keep doing that you put a stick across it perpendicular

there's your east-west line you know self line see how it's off a little bit say say this was the bigs act it's off a little bit that's because of the arc so depending on where you take your reading during the time of day changes how accurate or inaccurate your Sun compass is however I've devised a way to make an instant Sun compass read off the wait an hour so only have to wait you know every 15-20 minutes you make another mark and it's still off so I've found a way to make an instant Sun compass that's very accurate super simple you know the theory behind it is incredibly simple basically the Sun goes up it rises in the east and it sets in the West right so if you take a reading at either one of those places it hasn't taken its southern arc yet so it's reading its shadow is gonna be dead East or dead west as close as you can get it because if you take a reading first thing in the morning well the sun's coming up in the East I'll do it over here so if you so if this is East and the sun's coming up and you put your stick right here it's gonna shoot a shadow directly from east you make your mark right and there's your line from your post to where your shadow is boom that's simple dollars to it and then you put your other stick directly across but the other time you can do it is when the Sun is setting which is what's happening right now so I'm gonna put the stick in the ground right here we're gonna throw a shadow and we're going to do an instant Sun compass because the Sun is in the West because it's setting right now

all right I don't know if you guys can see that there's a shadow moving right here see that there's the shadow right there

that's right on the line of the shadow right there so that's the case yep if that's the case then this should be West there's a Sun is setting so it's coming from here shooting its shadow directly across from the west towards the east it should be my East line east side of my line so this is my east-west line so this should be roughly roughly something like this

my north-south east-west line tunnel direction now remember the Sun changes where it sets depending on the season okay so depending on if it's winter or summer things like that oops on the horizon the Sun might set here another part of the year the Sun might set over here okay so no matter what your your Sun compass is always gonna be a general direction okay

northerly easterly subtly westerly but let's see how close this is okay so that's grab my compass I haven't moved anything at all here that's pretty close right there I mean we're only off six degrees that's pretty tight so we have north-south line east-west line and as you can see it's pretty close to the compass right there we're only about six degrees off and the great thing about this is that it literally took me a minute maybe two minutes I literally had to put a stick in the ground and then put another stick right along that shadow done there's no waiting every 15 minutes coming back to the spa hoping a shadow from a tree as I moved over your spa and in ruined your compass and you know an hour and a half goes by and all this other business you know now if I don't have a compass and I want to absolutely know where I'm walking the next day or the day that it is so I wake up it's you know 5:30 in the morning Sun is coming up boom throw stick in the ground shadow it goes across Lake I stick across that then lay another perpendicular boom there it is there's my compass okay good Roger that good to go off I go oops see you later there's no sitting around for an hour and a half in camp messing around counting shadows and all that stuff now that works great doesn't learn you know the the middle of the day that works fine but again it's always general and the southern arc always throws it off you know and this is only six degrees off and it literally took me a minute okay so this is just a quick instant Sun compass that I came up with it takes the southern art out of the equation again depending on where the Sun sets in the seasons we'll still throw it off a little bit oh you know we're only talking a couple degrees and it's instant you know so just in case you don't have one of these you always have one of these let's finish native survival for sheep use comma see sport see in the next one thank 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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