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Land Navigation - Part Four
by Keith A. "Bootlegger" Williams
The next step will be to properly orientate the map to the surroundings. To do this; while holding the compass in this position, rotate the entire map until the compass needle is in line with the Orienting Arrow.
Identify the declination diagram on a map.
Before proceeding, there needs to be a discussion on Magnetic Declination. You see, in order to effectively use a map and compass together, you must first realize that maps are made in reference to the "Geographic" or "True" North Pole- which is a fixed position that the makers use to base a map’s information on. The problem with all this is that a compass needle doesn’t point to True North at all, but instead, points to the highest concentration of the earth’s magnetic lines of force. For ease of description, these are commonly referred to as "Magnetic" North. To give you an idea of how much difference that this can make, in 2005, these two were aprox. 500 miles apart, and are shifting roughly 24 miles every year. Without going into the sciences behind this, it is enough to understand that the term "Magnetic Declination" is just the amount of difference between the two, (usually 0-30 degrees) in whatever part of the world you are dealing with at the time the map was drawn. Depicted on the map legend is a diagram which will explain the map’s declination. We’ll get more into this in the next objective.
ON TO PART 5 - Land Navigation
Identify the declination diagram on a map.
Before proceeding, there needs to be a discussion on Magnetic Declination. You see, in order to effectively use a map and compass together, you must first realize that maps are made in reference to the "Geographic" or "True" North Pole- which is a fixed position that the makers use to base a map’s information on. The problem with all this is that a compass needle doesn’t point to True North at all, but instead, points to the highest concentration of the earth’s magnetic lines of force. For ease of description, these are commonly referred to as "Magnetic" North. To give you an idea of how much difference that this can make, in 2005, these two were aprox. 500 miles apart, and are shifting roughly 24 miles every year. Without going into the sciences behind this, it is enough to understand that the term "Magnetic Declination" is just the amount of difference between the two, (usually 0-30 degrees) in whatever part of the world you are dealing with at the time the map was drawn. Depicted on the map legend is a diagram which will explain the map’s declination. We’ll get more into this in the next objective.
ON TO PART 5 - Land Navigation
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