One area that I think a lot of people
kind of ignore these days is navigating by the stars. Right off the bat let me say that I'm not advocating tossing your GPS receivers and maps/compasses out the window. It's just that with all the technology (and the fact that fewer and fewer people grow up under dark country skies), many of my friends who are otherwise very survival oriented have no clue how to use the night sky to tell even direction. Let me just throw a few things out that might be useful.
I got interested in amateur astronomy when I was about ten or eleven (1975-76) and
began learning the constellations and the brightest stars. By the time I was thirteen or fourteen, I knew the night sky almost perfectly. This is not that hard to do, as I will explain later. Anyway, when I was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, I was
very surprised because many guys were afraid
to venture even a few hundred meters from their camp/base because they were afraid they would get lost. I read some of the survival tips that were being sent to the pilots on the Navy ships and one of the things that was a lesson learned about desert
survival was that people get so disoriented
since there are no real landmarks in some places and the stars seem so bright (since they aren't being seen through city lights).
I found it very comforting to be able to walk out of sight of everything without any care whatsoever knowing full well that I knew
exactly where I was going and what direction to walk back. I realized what a tremendous advantage that would be for a downed pilot or someone separated from his unit to be able
to tell direction from the sky.
Throughout the entire year, there are
only approximately 8,000-10,000 stars visible
with the naked eye (total) from a dark location. Under dark skies, an observer with
good eyesight can generally see about 2,000-2,500 at any given time. The bulk of these are at the edge of visibility. We often think of the "millions" of stars in the sky, but it isn't really the case. There are about
twenty or so "first magnitude stars" (the very bright ones that can be seen even from most cities). If someone wanted to learn to navigate by the night sky, one could learn these twenty bright ones and their associated
constellations and be well on his or her way to being able to find ones' way around at night. I would recommend first learning these
stars and constellations and then adding those constellations associated with them. If
one goes outside and spends fifteen or twenty
minutes each clear night (after your eyes are
dark adapted, which takes about twenty to thirty minutes and improves slightly for several hours more), he/she could have a real good understanding of the night sky in a year or two. It is important to learn the motions of the sky too, but this is no more
difficult than learning to use a map and compass. It just takes longer due to the
sky's changes being so slow. For example, it is important to realize that the stars rise about four minutes earlier each night, so a constellation that clears the trees at about 8:00pm in March will clear the trees at about 6:00pm in April. (Four minutes times thirty days equals 120 minutes or two hours earlier.)
There are several good books available on it. I recommend the introductory astronomy books over the books that are about navigation, because the navigation books usually just show a couple of drawings
of the big dipper and most people I know can't find it by these drawings. One of the
best tools for learning the constellations is
the "Bright Star Atlas" by Wil Tirion or the Sky and Telescope "Monthly Star Charts" which
are both available in any large bookstore.
They cover the naked eye stars and don't confuse you with a whole lot of the extra stuff that is found on more in-depth star atlases. As far as books on the sky and it's motions go, there is one of the little golden
guides called "The Sky Observer's Guide" which is what I learned from and it is still one of the best. A far more in-depth book is
James Kaler's "The Ever-Changing Sky." This
is a much more detailed book that takes the skies motions about as far as one can go without getting into a lot of math.
In any case, I've found this ability to tell direction and time by the skies to be a very rewarding skill that, while I have never actually had to depend on it, could potentially save my life. Equally importantly, it gives me confidence that I can find my way if I get lost and have even a general idea which direction I need to go.
One of the problems many survivors have is that they lose their self-confidence and then start questioning their own abilities.
Maintaining that self-confidence is (in my opinion) extremely important and this extra
skill can be of great assistance in that respect. Knowing how to navigate by the stars
does not replace a map and compass or GPS, but it can definitely supplement them. I never get that feeling of being all "alone"
that devastates some people trying to survive
because I always know that I can look up and
see old "friends" that I have followed through the courses of the seasons for many years.
Do the rest of you place any emphasis on stellar navigation or just kind of write it off as unnecessary in this day and age? I'm
not going to say that it is essential as a
skill, but it sure helps you keep your confidence up and prevents loneliness from
overcoming you. I have seen friends that have
gotten interested in it learn a great deal over the course of a year and tell me they feel a real sense of assurance when they go on vacations to national parks or out in the country and can look up and tell which direction they are facing and so on.
Any thoughts from anyone? And by the way, I am no survival expert. Just what I learned
growing up hiking and camping here in S.C.,
survival training in the Navy, and reading.
I hope to learn a lot more from this forum.
See ya! JRF.
kind of ignore these days is navigating by the stars. Right off the bat let me say that I'm not advocating tossing your GPS receivers and maps/compasses out the window. It's just that with all the technology (and the fact that fewer and fewer people grow up under dark country skies), many of my friends who are otherwise very survival oriented have no clue how to use the night sky to tell even direction. Let me just throw a few things out that might be useful.
I got interested in amateur astronomy when I was about ten or eleven (1975-76) and
began learning the constellations and the brightest stars. By the time I was thirteen or fourteen, I knew the night sky almost perfectly. This is not that hard to do, as I will explain later. Anyway, when I was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, I was
very surprised because many guys were afraid
to venture even a few hundred meters from their camp/base because they were afraid they would get lost. I read some of the survival tips that were being sent to the pilots on the Navy ships and one of the things that was a lesson learned about desert
survival was that people get so disoriented
since there are no real landmarks in some places and the stars seem so bright (since they aren't being seen through city lights).
I found it very comforting to be able to walk out of sight of everything without any care whatsoever knowing full well that I knew
exactly where I was going and what direction to walk back. I realized what a tremendous advantage that would be for a downed pilot or someone separated from his unit to be able
to tell direction from the sky.
Throughout the entire year, there are
only approximately 8,000-10,000 stars visible
with the naked eye (total) from a dark location. Under dark skies, an observer with
good eyesight can generally see about 2,000-2,500 at any given time. The bulk of these are at the edge of visibility. We often think of the "millions" of stars in the sky, but it isn't really the case. There are about
twenty or so "first magnitude stars" (the very bright ones that can be seen even from most cities). If someone wanted to learn to navigate by the night sky, one could learn these twenty bright ones and their associated
constellations and be well on his or her way to being able to find ones' way around at night. I would recommend first learning these
stars and constellations and then adding those constellations associated with them. If
one goes outside and spends fifteen or twenty
minutes each clear night (after your eyes are
dark adapted, which takes about twenty to thirty minutes and improves slightly for several hours more), he/she could have a real good understanding of the night sky in a year or two. It is important to learn the motions of the sky too, but this is no more
difficult than learning to use a map and compass. It just takes longer due to the
sky's changes being so slow. For example, it is important to realize that the stars rise about four minutes earlier each night, so a constellation that clears the trees at about 8:00pm in March will clear the trees at about 6:00pm in April. (Four minutes times thirty days equals 120 minutes or two hours earlier.)
There are several good books available on it. I recommend the introductory astronomy books over the books that are about navigation, because the navigation books usually just show a couple of drawings
of the big dipper and most people I know can't find it by these drawings. One of the
best tools for learning the constellations is
the "Bright Star Atlas" by Wil Tirion or the Sky and Telescope "Monthly Star Charts" which
are both available in any large bookstore.
They cover the naked eye stars and don't confuse you with a whole lot of the extra stuff that is found on more in-depth star atlases. As far as books on the sky and it's motions go, there is one of the little golden
guides called "The Sky Observer's Guide" which is what I learned from and it is still one of the best. A far more in-depth book is
James Kaler's "The Ever-Changing Sky." This
is a much more detailed book that takes the skies motions about as far as one can go without getting into a lot of math.
In any case, I've found this ability to tell direction and time by the skies to be a very rewarding skill that, while I have never actually had to depend on it, could potentially save my life. Equally importantly, it gives me confidence that I can find my way if I get lost and have even a general idea which direction I need to go.
One of the problems many survivors have is that they lose their self-confidence and then start questioning their own abilities.
Maintaining that self-confidence is (in my opinion) extremely important and this extra
skill can be of great assistance in that respect. Knowing how to navigate by the stars
does not replace a map and compass or GPS, but it can definitely supplement them. I never get that feeling of being all "alone"
that devastates some people trying to survive
because I always know that I can look up and
see old "friends" that I have followed through the courses of the seasons for many years.
Do the rest of you place any emphasis on stellar navigation or just kind of write it off as unnecessary in this day and age? I'm
not going to say that it is essential as a
skill, but it sure helps you keep your confidence up and prevents loneliness from
overcoming you. I have seen friends that have
gotten interested in it learn a great deal over the course of a year and tell me they feel a real sense of assurance when they go on vacations to national parks or out in the country and can look up and tell which direction they are facing and so on.
Any thoughts from anyone? And by the way, I am no survival expert. Just what I learned
growing up hiking and camping here in S.C.,
survival training in the Navy, and reading.
I hope to learn a lot more from this forum.
See ya! JRF.
