Scoutorama - Finding your way with the moon

Let’s look at this picture once more

direction-du-soleil

At night you will use the moon to find the position of the sun. Look closely at the pictures below. If the moon is full in front of you (A) then it means the sun is behind you. If you see the first quarter (C) then the sun is on your right, etc...
rapport-lune-soleil

Let’s take this example : we are in winter, it’s 4am in the morning and you can see the first quarter of the moon in front of you...

You should first go back to solar time, it is now 3am. Find the position of the sun, on your right (just like case C). Now look at the picture above, it says that at 3am the sun is in the north east. Therefore you know that the north east is on your right and you can direct your map like this :

orientation-avec-la-lune

Auteur :

l’Astrolabe, ETN Orientation / French National Orientation Scout Team - translated from french by Pierre B.

Publié le 4 October 2008

Mon sac à dos

Le camp virtuel

A scout should be able to find his way in the day or at night. However that requires a little bit of training with a compass to check that you are going the right way.