USING A MAP AND COMPASS to Navigate Your Way

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE - to those of us out there with even the slightest dyslexic tendencies, we can often forget which is which. For a good mnemonic device, a way of connecting data in our minds with an image or a sound, think of it this way - "latitude-flatitude"... flat, like the floor, and thusly horizontal. So, the horizontal lines which wrap around the Earth in an East/West fashion are the latitude lines.

The other, obviously, would be the longitude lines, but if you'd like a mnemonic device for that as well, just think of it like this; it's a looooooong walk between the North and South poles, and so those lines that connect the two, are the LONGitude lines. Although the "g" is pronounced as a "j", you get the idea ^_~

As far as the latitude lines go, the Equator is at 0 degrees latitude, and the North pole is at 90 degrees North latitude, while the South pole is at 90 degrees South latitude. Latitude lines are parallel, and never intersect.

As for the longitude lines, also called "meridians", they are not parallel, but they intersect. The closer they get to the poles, the closer they get to eachother until they converge at the poles. These lines can be gotten to, from one to the next in either direction between East and West without running out of lines to get to - there is no stop in sight, as they just go all the way around the world. So, a "start/stop" line had to be decided upon.

This decided line runs between the North and South poles through the Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, United Kingdom. This is the zero line, otherwise known as the "Prime Meridian". Another line at the direct opposite side of our wonderful blue/green world, is the 180 degree line, known as the "International Date Line".

AREA COORDINATES - Again, and I cannot stress this enough, DO keep in mind here, that you will need to fully understand how to adjust your compass for magnetic declination. If you don't, then you WILL get LOST, when using a compass in conjunction with a map. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, or know little about compasses and are unfamiliar with the TWO DIFFERENT NORTH POLES, please first see my other lens page about How to Use a Compass before going any further here.

Now, as you can see by the world map to the right here, the latitude and longitude lines and all of their degrees are as thus. The big spaces in between the lines are also further divided up into what we call minutes and seconds, 60 each. At least, it used to be referred to that way. Minutes and seconds are still used sometimes today, but more often you'll just find degrees marked with decimals.

For example, 1600 Pennsilvania Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C, is 38 degrees, 53 minutes and 55.133 seconds North latitude, by 77 degrees, 2 minutes and 15.691 seconds West longitude. But if we express this location of the White House using decimals, we could probably more easily say, Lat. 38.898648N, Lon. 77.037692W.

Latitude is always given first when expressing coordinates either way. Degrees West and degrees South are occasionally referred to as being negative degrees, therefore, hearing "-10 degrees by -30 degrees", we can know that it's the same as "10 degrees South by 30 degrees West" - remember that latitude always comes first! ^_^

CREATING YOUR OWN MAPS on your computer and then printing them out for use is a superbly useful thing. However, many software programs used to create topographical maps anywhere in the country are wildly priced - usually between $500-$1,000 - and are basically large data CDs of scanned paper maps that can get old rather quickly.

What we need is a software that is constantly updated with information from the USGS, features automatic routing of roads and trails, has shaded relief 3D topography, is able to allow for user-added info (drawing in your own extra trail data, plans, symbols, names, etc.), has GPS waypoint conversion, Displays USGS quad data and DeLorme satellite imagery, and many other features... and it's still gotta not cost so darned much.

Well, I've scoured the net and found just such a software program... for less than $100 (yeah, that surprised me too). If you'd like to know more about it, please click on the image below to learn more;




Alrighty! Now that we have this phenomenal find firmly in our memory, let's see if we can hone some skills along the lines of getting our bearing and finding our PROPER HEADING.

PROPER HEADING - Okay, let's try out an example of getting our bearing and establishing a proper heading. If you've read through the first lens page in this series, you'll be familiar with the parts of an orienteering compass, such as the DOT arrow (Direction Of Travel), and the orienting lines on the base plate of the compass, as well as on the base of the compass's main housing. These and the turnable main housing of the compass are all that we will be using in this exercise.

We won't be paying any attention to the needle of the compass in this operation... that will come later.

First, let's look at this map of Zion National Park at the upper right here. Let's let the little red and white framed black dot on the lower left represent where we are right now, and the other dot on the right, a little farther up, is Parunuweap Pass, where we'd like to get to.

The problem is, there may be some land masses and/or trees and such that are in the way, and so we might not be able to see our destination with our eyes, so we need to use our map and compass together, in order to determine just in which direction to go to get there.

CALCULATE BEARING in this way; Lay your map flat, no matter how you have it - it doesn't need to point North or anything right now. Now lay your compass right on top of it, and have its length be right in line between the two points, where you are and where you need to go. If the distance between the two points are quite far apart on the map, use something straight to align your compass *precisely* along the line between the two points. You must be precise. If you have to use a ruler, a tent pole, or the edge of another paper map, whatever - just keep it straight. Look at this picture here, for example.

Now please remember, pay no attention to the needle itself for now - especially since when I drew up this and the next pictures, I did it quickly, and between the two, the needle isn't acting like it might in real life. Just ignore it - both here, and when you do this yourself with an actual map and compass.

What you should be paying attention to here, are the orienting lines on the base plate of the compass. Keep them all aligned to the imaginary line from point A to point B. If it's easier, take a ruler or what have you, and pen that line in on your map between those two points before you lay your compass down over it. Then you can be sure to be precise with the compass's placement.

BEARING CALCULATION continues by now turning the main housing of your orienteering compass to align the orienting lines on the base within the main housing to the North/South longitude lines of the map - they need to be parallel with the longitude lines.

In the picture here, we can see that once we do this, we can look at the index pointer (the base of the DOT arrow, where it meets the main housing), and get our bearing, or heading (pretty much the same thing).

REMEMBER, forget the needle... even though this picture shows that it is pointing North, it doesn't need to do so for what we're doing here... the only important things right now at this point are the orienting lines of the base plate, as well as those within the main housing, and the index pointer and that's all - alrighty? Great! ^_^

Now, judging by the picture here, we can see that in this case, we have a new heading of 60 degrees. Now we can know without even seeing our destination with the naked eye, traveling in this direction will take us directly to Parunuweap Pass.

But wait... we're not done just yet!

COMPASS COURSE - Now is the time to pay attention to your compass needle, folks!

Keeping everything about your declination adjusted compass set the way you have set it from the map, hold it flat in your hand, with the DOT arrow pointing away from you, and turn yourself around until the needle shows "RED IN THE SHED". If you're unfamiliar with this term, please visit the first page in this series to learn more! ^_~

Now, having done this, the DOT arrow is now pointing in the precise direction you need to be traveling in! Pretty snazzy, eh?

PRINTING YOUR OWN TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS from your PC is wonderful, but once you have your maps all printed out with your ink-jet printer, what will happen to your paper map when faced with the elements in the great outdoors?

What we need, is printer paper that is waterproof, tear-resistant, temperature-resistant, environmentally friendly and can produce high quality map images that can stand the rigors of the mountains and forests (and still folds like regular paper). For this reason, National Geographic Adventure Paper is the best thing to come by since the Compass. 8.5" x 11", 25 sheets - please click on the image below to learn more;