5 Ways to Orient Yourself Without Using a Compass

2025 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-24 13:28

Oh no! You are lost in the woods, and you don't know what to do! Even worse, you don't have any compasses in your backpack! Take it easy. If you follow these simple steps when you get lost, it will be quite easy to find your way back.

Steps

Method 1 of 5: At Night - Ursa Major Method

Step 1. Find the Big Dipper

Step 2. Find the two stars on the outer edge of the Bear's chariot

These are the pointer stars. They point to the North Star.

Step 3. Draw an imaginary line from the pointer stars across the sky to the next shining star

Step 4. Extend your arm fully and open your fingers and the North Star should be about thumb distance from your middle finger

Method 2 of 5: At Night - Two Sticks Method

Step 1. Place a stick standing in the ground with the top end at eye level

Step 2. Plant a taller stick behind the first one so that the tips of the sticks are aligned on a bright star when you look

Step 3. Wait until, after a few minutes, the star appears displaced - it is actually the earth moving, not the star

Step 4. Determine how the star moved

• If it has moved up, you are facing east.

  

• If it has moved down, you are facing west.

  

• If it has moved to the right, you are facing south.

  

• If it has moved to the left, you are facing north.

  

Method 3 of 5: At Night - Crescent Moon Method (Northern Hemisphere)

Step 1. Take the two points of the crescent moon and draw an imaginary line towards the horizon and it will point south

Method 4 of 5: During the Day - Wrist Watch Method

Step 1. Put an analog wristwatch (one with hands) on a flat surface

Step 2. Move your arm so that the hour hand points towards the sun

Step 3. Now imagine a line on the face that crosses the center of the clock and a point halfway between the hour hand and noon

Step 4. This imaginary line runs from north to south

Step 5. Now this only works if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you should point the 12 o'clock clock towards the sun, and consider the imaginary line between the center of the clock and the halfway point between noon and the point indicated by the hour hand for the north

Method 5 of 5: During the Day - Nature Observation Methods

Step 1. Check the following directional signs:

• Deciduous trees tend to grow on the south side of the hills; the evergreen plants on the north side.

  

• In the desert, the giant barrel-shaped cactus always bends south.

  

• The foliage of the Rosinweed, a plant of the genus Silfio, tends to line up along the north-south route - settlers crossing the great plains called this plant the "compass of the prairie".

  

• The sun faces south at noon every day in the northern hemisphere and vice versa in the southern hemisphere.