does anyone have any experience using the sky for directions to a destination?

I'm constantly tracking the sun when I travel without really thinking about it, even in a car, at least as a general check. Same with terrain features such as rivers and ridges. I once missed a turn while crossing the Navajo Reservation, and knew it right away because the sun was right in front of me and Ship Rock was not.

A little astronomy is helpful to know. On a summer solstice tour in northern Montana, I had a hard time explaining to a companion that the sun was not actually setting due east, but rather north of that. I convinced him to trust the compass, but I then I had to explain the severe declination (16 degrees where we were).

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Also have a Garmin Edge 1000 and an iPhone.

At school we had a geography master who took groups of us out into the countryside and left us with a map and compass, we had to find our way back to the nearest village.

I wild-camp a good bit and will often use the sun first thing in the morning to be sure I'm heading the right direction.

If you bring your sextant along, don't forget your chronometer, lots of navy books full of tables, plotting paper, straight edge, pencils, star identification chart, dividers? (I do not recall if you need a dividers to plot a celestial fix), etc.

I generally prefer navigation methods that also work on cloudy days since I do not have an Icelandic spar crystal.

I ask my wife, she's knows everything

Absolutely, all of the time, with practice you can get a good idea of the time of day based on the sun's position in the sky and which direction to head based on that, not to mention when you should be looking to stop and settle down for the coming darkness.

I've crossed a few states connecting back roads with a compass. In the Northeast, it's easy. In the west like Colorado... you need to know where you're going so you don't end up on a highway. My experience.

I Learned to use map and compass in the Boy Scouts , in like 1957.


I'd leave the sextant on the Boat, if I were You.

It uses the sea's Horizon line, so not much value on Land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextant

On a recent tour from Nashville to Natchez, one morning when leaving the campground I turned the wrong way onto the highway. After 'only' two miles I realized the sun was on the wrong side of the road. Turning around, I discovered that what I had thought were 'miraculously recovered' legs on my way out, had been only a tailwind. I'm starting to think that my family, who had always told me I was a smart boy, was just giving encouragement to a 'special needs' kid. "Look at him, Ma. He's tryin' really hard!"

Long ago I spent quite a bit of time sailing with passages across the Atlantic east to west and north to south. These days most sailors use GPS and a sextant is just for backup. Celestial navigation requires equipment for sight reduction. Even the more simplified lifeboat navigation will require some equipment so these methods would be of little use to a cyclist. What would be of use are orienteering methods which rely on map and compass and keeping your wits on alert. There are many orienteering web sights where you can pick up information to study. https://www.google.com/search?q=orie...a&channel=fflb

I always carry a small quality compass when I tour. It takes up minimal room in my handle bar bag but has justified its inclusion several times when it contradicted my innate sense of direction.

using compass, sun, or sextant
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does anyone have any experience using the sky for directions to a destination?


Compass and sun, of course. Quite frequently.

Sextant, no.

If you can see the sun and have a watch with hands, sight across the watch face and point the hour hand at the sun and then south is halfway between the hour hand and the 12

Not to mention they are bulky and awfully fragile. The case to protect one is what makes in bulky. You can buy cheaper plastic ones but they are not very accurate. Mainly used for training. Not very accurate as the plastic is very temperature sensitive and they tend to warp.

In addition to a horizon, you will need maps with latitude and longitude on them. It is difficult just getting an accurate fix from the sextant. That is half the battle. The next issue is transposing your fix to the charts (maps). It is a time consuming process.

What is wrong with a good old fashioned GPS?

Or just get a compass.

I was sailing in Bora Bora a few years ago during May, at about 16 degrees S latitude. Sun's declination was probably 15 N at that time, so sun was to the N at midday. As someone who's lived in the northern hemisphere my whole life, it seemed strange, and when navigating around the island I realized that I do subconsciously navigate by the sun all the time, as it was throwing me off a bit when things were reversed.

I've used my iPhone's compass a few times when traveling and no sky was visible due to clouds.

Or learn to terrain associate and use topographical maps (but do carry a compass for the 1% of the time you actually need it -- dependent on terrain of course, milage varies in the desert and the arctic).

map & compass for me! i'm too scared of technology to use a gps.

as to sextants? oh gosh, i haven't had sextant in ages!

in fact, i'm no longer sure where to get sextant nowadays!

Never too old for a sextant, saddlesores

My old grandfather taught me to sleep with my head pointing north, so knowing where the north star is is useful.
I'll use the sun or a compass to pitch my tent so it'll catch the first rays of the morning... tent gets dry and you get an early start.
I've stopped carrying a compass now that my iPhone has one

Sorry if I am getting off topic, but I have to tell you this story....

I crossed the country with a group of 12 people. One woman got lost with relative frequency. A few days before the end of the trip, we were riding north on U.S. 1 in Maine. The woman stopped at a gift shop selling Asian-themed items. She was looking for something for her sister, who had done missionary work in China. She left the store, got back on her bike and continued riding when she decided to stop at another shop. When she was done browsing, she again got back on her bike and continued riding. Not too far up the road, she was surprised to see another Asian-themed gift shop. That's when she realized that after her first stop she had inadvertently started riding south on U.S. 1 instead of continuing north and that after her second stop she had inadvertently reversed direction again. What makes this story even more amazing is that her bike was fitted with a compass.

no experience using sky, but I have done a lot of wilderness hiking. Two critical things are topo map and a compass. you need both. a map is near useless unless you have a compass so you can orient the map to north. otherwise you have no idea what direction you are going. Of course on highways it is easier but still the map and compass (and knowing how to uset them) are very helpfull. I also think a hand held gps is nice and i usually have all three when hiking. If you know how to use them you have to work to get lost.

One other thing. If you have a map and compass you can orient the map and then use the compass and sightings off of terrain features to triangulate your exact position on the map. That makes it a lot easier to navigate when you actually know where you are. There are books that tell you how to do all of this. Small books. You can buy one from the Boy Scouts store.

I am never so lucky that I can find a flat unlumpy area that is so big that I can pitch my tent oriented in any direction, I usually am pitching my tent to take advantage of the tiny flattest and smoothest area to sleep on that will not fill up with water during a downpour.

Only in the Northern hemisphere. In the southern hemipshere North is halfway between the hour hand and the sun. I learned that one the hard way.