At 09:58 AM 2003-02-11 -0500, you wrote:
>Another tip for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Find the time for
>your local sunrise and sunset. Divide that time period by two to determine
>your local noon. At that moment, the shadow of your tower points to true
>North.
>
>Bruce AA4Z
That might work if you donot have mountains like I do. Or if you mean the
official as set by the weather stations
For a fun excersize one year I tried taking the observed sunrise and
sunset. I also took markings where the sun rose and set on the mountains
on the solstices and equinox. Real fun. The one thing that I would like
to do is to observe the sunrise and sunset at the equator, the tropics and
the northern circles at various times of the ear. I have been told that
dusk in the summer in the northern or southern parts is much longer, as at
the equator the passage from light to dark ( & vice versa) is rapid. Here
in the mountains it tends to be longer as the sun sets behind the mountain
during certain parts of the year at different times hence shines on the
opposite mountain. In one part of the town south side of the valley, the
sun has just come out for the winter, it set in Nov and is now coming out
for about half an hour. No north from that.
To find north by oneself
I found that the best is to put up a stick vertical to the ground, then
one at the same angle to the ground as you are from the equator
parallels, then mark the length of the shadow cast by both at various
times of the day. Then join all the end of the lengths in a line to form
an ellipse. The shortest distance from the stick in then North.
Chris opr VE7HCB
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