Chasing North pole

Most of us have used compass. Compass is an instrument that shows directions with the help of magnetic needle that always points the North. But did you know that the compass may mislead you if you are hiking in Canada? The magnetic needle in compass may point towards east misleading you to think that its north.

Stanley compass | Wikimedia commons

Before I proceed its important to know the difference between the North pole and the Magnetic North.
North pole is the axis around which the earth rotates. It is located in Arctic and the point where all longitude lines intersect. The needle on the compass doesn't points the North pole but it points the Magnetic North.

The Earth's magnetic North is located in Canada, and is slowly moving at the rate of 40 Km per year. In fact all magnetic compasses point towards Canada This is the reason extra precautions are needed to be taken if you re hiking in Canada. Approximately the Magnetic north (or the pole at which the needle in compass point) is located at 82.3 degrees North Latitude and 113.4 degrees West Longitude. So if you are at the west of this point the needle inside compass will point East, misleading you to think its North.
The interesting thing about magnetic north is that if you stand over it using compass the needle dips down!

So compass may mislead but its not the only way to find North. Hold your watch and point the Sun. Imagine an angle formed between a line passing through 12 O'clock and the hour hand and divide the angle exactly half. This intersection line diving the angle in half will point South if you are in Northern Hemisphere. This is Location of True North. In southern hemisphere point twelve o'clock towards sun and bisect and between the hour clock and twelve to get North pole.
However this method wont work near arctic regions because of midnight sun. Also it is important that your watch has shows the correct time.

Method to determine East and West

Another method is to place the stick upright on the surface and mark the tip of the shadow. Wait for another 15-20 minutes and mark the new location of the shadow. Join the points and draw a perpendicular line to it. The first marking you made is the west and new marking you made after 15-20 minutes is the East. Manipulate and find the North and the South.

North Star or Pole star ( Click to Enlarge) | Wikimedia Commons

These methods work well during the day, but at night you may use stars to navigate. For example the North star helps you find the North pole. One misconception about north star is that its the brightest star. Actually it isn't the brightest.

Crux | Wikimedia commons

In southern hemisphere however, North star isn't visible and we may use the Southern cross constellation or Crux to find the South pole. View the picture above. On left of the image the cross is shown. The line which is almost parallel to horizon helps us finding the South pole. Imagine extending that line till the horizon. The point where this extended line meets the horizon is the South pole.

There are many other ways to find directions like using the moss, ants hills, tree's orientation but without proper knowledge about the geography, they can mislead.

So we may conclude that there is no ONE reliable life-hack to know the true north. But yes we do have GPS. Happy hiking. :)