Find North with the Stars - Orion – Celestial Navigation (Northern Hemisphere)

sup bros the constellation of Orion one of the largest most recognizable constellations in our night sky and I think I can speak on behalf of most of us when I say it's more than likely the constellation that first caught our eye and curiosity as children it has never really been given the recognition it deserves as a celestial navigational aid can you find directions with Orion you bet your ass you can so let's find North with Orion in the northern hemisphere so let's get right into it so here's a closer look at a Ryan maybe it's a little redundant to show you it maybe you are already familiar with it it is a huge constellation twice the size of Ursa Major and shaped like an hourglass the constellation contains many more stars but for the most part these are the stars will notice at a glance we don't need the rest of the constellation but at the center are free very large very bright stars known as Orion's belt and free smaller fainter stars beneath it known as Orion's sword that's all you really need to know that's a Ryan in a nutshell but let's back up another image of it it's in there somewhere amongst this celestial orgasm the bill and the sword are the stars that are immediately striking so easy to spot if you can recognize the belt and the sword because there is a lot going on in this image but you just need to know what to look for but it also gives you an idea of the scale over Ryan it's pretty huge so let's find directions with it I'll pitch the technique quickly but then we'll expand on it and further understand it on a fundamental level when Orion is tilted to the left and low on the horizon it is east when the constellation is upright higher in the sky it is south when it's tilted to the right and low on the horizon it is West does that ring any bells same kind of deal as the fighting off with the Sun video easy right but we can expand on that so let's do that and fill in the blanks so for a moment let's just track the motion of a Ryan across our night sky so it appears in the East travels across the southern side of the sky and disappears into the West hmm does that ring any bells I can think of another star that follows a similar motion the god damn son Orion will not be visible in the northern side of the sky much like the Sun it sits on the celestial equator so to put it into perspective observe the Sun that big old bright dot and to the right of it this current moment in time is Orion it follows the same equatorial path as the Sun which is why it appears in our sky the same way so fades into the east travels across the southern side sky and eventually fades away into the west repeating that for emphasis so we won't use this constellation to find North directly oh no we will use it to find North indirectly for using it to find south east and west so how the first thing to take into consideration is its tilt as a general rule when it's tilted to the left its Eastern when its upright itself when it's tilted to the right its west and you can judge the severity of detail by looking at the sword when it's at center stage completely vertical likewise on the horizon it's pretty diagonal because the constellation is a bit wonky admittedly but the sword is there as a guide if you need it the second thing to take into consideration is how close the constellation is to the horizon obviously if it's low on the horizon and tilted then it's either going to be east or west right as it's higher in the sky and less severely tilted southeast and Southwest at its highest point in the sky when it's upright south so if you think back with define north with the some video same kind of deal there so let's play with some examples I'm going to give you an image of Orion and you have to work out the direction you're facing based on the tilt of Orion so here's a Ryan laying very low close to the horizon so knowing what we know now we can conclude that we or at least a photographer took this image is facing west and you'd be right about that now how about this one well we can clearly see that it's upright so we must be facing Sal for this current moment in time you'd be right so how about this one well if we analyze it it's tilted to the left but it's not laying very low on the horizon it has travelled upwards a fair amount so it's not East and it's not completely vertical so it's not Sal the middle ground southeast and you'd be right about that see how easy this is that's the skill in a nutshell Gigi so Sal Southwest West easy but what if you observe the Ryan like this you probably would say West and you'd be right if you were at the equator very low in the Northern Hemisphere why because as we head closer to the equator Orion travels higher across the centre of the sky so you can observe a much fuller range of motion it goes vertical itself to completely horizontal pretty much at the horizon so for low latitudes you have to take this into consideration our prior south tilted Southwest horizontal west likewise at the opposite end of the hemisphere talking boreal or Arctic regions you observe a much shorter range of motion so it doesn't tilt a whole lot but the whole tilt game isn't really the deal breaker with this skill it's always south when it's upright and vertical that is a constant when it's low on the horizons it's either east or west that is always true as well the degree of tilt changes in extremes of latitude so that's where you either have to do the work and think of things out for yourself or your own specific latitude or if you're lazy then you don't really need to concern yourself too much with the whole tilt game just focus on how close it is to the horizon you can work out whether it's southeast or Southwest based on how far is from the horizon much like a sunrise you know the sunrise in the east as a general rule and sets in the west think of Orion as a nighttime Sun mimic that's basically how this works so now if we look at this image as you can see it's pretty close to the horizon yet it's almost vertical from this one can conclude that this photograph was taken at a very high latitude in the northern hemisphere probably the top of Norway or somewhere like Iceland as an example so that is a Ryan in a nutshell we know how it travels across the sky in high medium and low latitudes in the northern hemisphere we know why it travels across the sky with a similar motion to the Sun and we know how to analyze it to find directions what else can we talk about well let's talk about the ever changing window for observation Orion is a seasonal constellation meaning it will only be visible or partially visible during certain seasons it's regarded as a winter constellation because during the winter it completes the full visible cycle from east through south to west as winter transitions into spring it only becomes visible in the south and sets in the west from mid spring fruit to summer it's not visible at all the constellation becomes visible again in the late autumn appearing in the east and disappearing into the south until winter comes along and everything's hunky-dory again so if you go outside tonight you won't see it you gotta wait a while before you can revel in the majesticness of Orion so that's curious what is the reason behind it only being partially visible during certain seasons it's to do with our position around the Sun during those seasons a short answer in the winter short a days longer nights so we can observe more of a Ryan in the summer longer days short a night so yeah but that's not really the real reason at all the long answer well we'd have to get talking about perspective in accordance to our position around the Sun during the four seasons as we're over here in the winter tilted away from the Sun we have a full 12 hour night time to simplify it pretty much facing directly towards a Ryan so we can see its glorious full range of motion across our nighttime sky as we're in the summer over here basically the Sun is in the way well it's not really in the way the Sun isn't so massive that it blocks our view of star systems that are 1,300 light years away we would see Orion during the day but you know the sun's out so Rayleigh scattering prevents us from seeing out of our out - it has night time rolls around we're facing in the opposite direction so we observe a new set of stars Orion is nowhere to be seen as we're in spring and autumn we can see half of Orion's full motion before Rayleigh scattering prematurely comes back around as night transitioned in today right okay so there you go finding directions with Orion plus a whole lot more Orion related details one more thing before I go though a bonus pro tip if you follow the belt of Orion create an imaginary line that extends outwards to your left you'll bump into a very bright star and that star is called Sirius one of the brightest stars in our night sky so that's easy to remember right it belongs to the constellation of Canis Major which looks a bit like a dog right a little bit has a very bright shiny star on its collar canis is actually the genus for walls jackals dogs coyotes canine you dig it cool so that's that just for the sake of knowing things Canis Major and Sirius aren't useful as navigational aids but figured I'd mention it so you could add another celestial knowledge notch to your bedpost Orion serious and Canis Major you can always impress the when you bust a star knowledge

Channel: AlfieAesthetics

Views: 269,927

Rating: 4.8175864 out of 5

Keywords: AlfieAesthetics, wilderness survival, survival skills, bushcraft, survival, bushcraft skills, bushcraft kit, survival kit, bug out bag, camping, camping kit, SHTF, zombie survival, zombie apocalypse, ray mears, bear grylls, mykel hawke, les stroud, adventure, travel, Celestial Navigation, navigation without a compass, how to find directions, how to find directions without a compass, Find North with the Stars, Natural Navigation, Orion, Ursa Major, Big Dipper, Constellations

Id: gpqVWw6RxLc

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 11 2014