How to find north?

[Dave Liquorice]

er, no the two end stars of "blade" of the plough point to polaris.

Assuming you have dark enough skies to see the stars...

[TimW]

Look at a map. Depending on how accurate you want it and where you are you may need to adjust due to map projection, the map grid being true n/s only at one particular longitude.

[Pamela]

Re-calibrate your smartphone compass before checking.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

George Miles explained :

All compasses accurately point to magnetic north.

Trees form moss on the north side of the trunk, where the sun never lands.

[Martin Brown]

Polaris is second magnitude. There aren't many solitary bright stars near the pole.

You should be able to see it quite clearly even from city centres once you get out of direct line of sight of street lamps. You might not be able to see the handle from a heavily polluted site but you can probably see the blade edge of the smaller plough and the pointers of the large plough.

I can't ever recall being anywhere so badly light polluted that the main stars Great Plough were not visible in a clear sky.

[Chris Green]

Oops, yes, you're right now I think about it (or visualise it).

It doesn't have to be that dark to see the basics of the Plough and find the Pole Star.

[Chris Green]

No, *magnetic* compasses point to magnetic north, there are other sorts of compasses.

[tim...]

surely it points in the same direction regardless of where you are looking

[gareth evans]

... and if you forget those that come in pairs then you might feel a prick :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Or use the pole star....

[The Natural Philosopher]

..and how far west of the meridian you are

[Cursitor Doom]

Rumoured to be on its periodic migration to the south in fact. Leaving that aside (not denying mag north is way off true north these days) it also seems to be a *lot* weaker than it was when I was a boy with a pair of Wayfinders - I'm going back a way here. I'd guess those small compasses would be useless today whereas 50+ years ago the indication settled quickly and was unambiguous.

[Andrew]

At midday ??

[Max Demian]

I used to have a spherical liquid filled compass stuck to the windscreen of a car. By the time it had settled down you had turned a corner.

[Max Demian]

It's all right for now, but in a few thousands of years it'll be way off due to precession. What shall we do then?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Stay dead?

[Chris Green]

Use a different star, but that doesn't really matter for the OP does it!?

[williamwright]

No it's the other end that points to the North Star.

Bill

[williamwright]

Tried the Mersey Tunnel?

Bill

[williamwright]

Turn in our graves.

Bill