The image above is a heading of about 250 degrees. Heading and Bearing are pretty much the same thing. The direction you are going is called your heading. When you need to find your way from one particular place to another, you need to use these numbers to find out the bearing to that remote place. These represent the 360 degrees in a circle that surrounds you no matter where you are. But, you've probably noticed on your compass, there are also numbers and tiny lines. This is often all you need from your compass. Now we know we are really heading West (270 degrees)īy simply moving your compass with your body and using the N-E-S-W markings, you can get a good idea which way you are going. Since the Orienting Arrow is usually two parallel lines on the floor of the compass housing, a good thing to memorize is: Then I can read the heading that is at the Index Pointer spot (the butt of the direction-of-travel arrow). To find my direction, I must turn the compass dial until the North mark and the "Orienting Arrow" are lined up with the North end of the needle.
How to read rose diagram free#
Actually, there is a magnetic piece like a needle, but it has a paper disk (card) glued to it or has a plastic ball around it that is free to rotate. You've seen compasses in cars or toy compasses - neither of these have a noticable needle and are called "Card Compasses".
This is the type that has a needle that always points north and you need to move a dial to find directions. We will be discussing the mountaineering compass, also called the orienteering compass. But, for finding your way or locating destinations in the wild, use degrees as you'll see in a bit. For rough directions, go ahead and use North or NorthWest. Since there IS a need for more precise directions, the circle of a compass face is split into 360 marks called degrees. We could add additional points, continueing to break each section in half over and over, but telling someone to go East-EastEastNorthEast-EastNorthEast would not be fun. With these directions, you can give someone a fairly good idea of what direction they need to go. These are North-NorthEast, East-NorthEast, East-SouthEast, South-SouthEast. The other three intercardinal points are SouthEast, SouthWest, and NorthWest.įinally, there are secondary intercardinal points halfway between each cardinal point and intercardinal point. The direction halfway between North and East is an intercardinal point and is called NorthEast. Right and Left are relative directions and differ depending on your location and direction, but the cardinal points are constant. When reading a compass, and telling other people directions, you need to wipe "right" and "left" out of your vocabulary. There are four cardinal points on a compass - North, South, East, and West. But, you've got to take baby steps, so let's talk about how the a compass is laid out. A compass can be used in many ways, from telling which way is North to finding hidden treasure or following an unmarked path over wilderness terrain.