Were not using it at all during this entire process.). Required fields are marked *. Place the compass on the map with one long edge of the baseplate running between the two points of interest. 3. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. For bearings of one to 179 degrees, rotate the bezel counter-clockwise. Sight: Now peek through the rear sight slot, aligning the sighting wire or the front sight to the desired direction or object. Looking at the map is an easy way of finding which direction north or east are relative to your current position. Put that hand up to the compass, steadying the compass by placing your index finger along the compass's side, and wrapping your thumb between the bezel ring and the rear sight. Remember, human features are the last port of call and, whats king again? 2. 3. Orienting the Map with an Orienteering Compass. So in this installment, well go over the skills you need to do just that. Bear in mind that an east declination value will be a positive number, and a west declination value will be a negative number. PART 1 Basic Land Navigation Module 6 Map Information WARNING This presentation is intended as a quick summary, and not a comprehensive resource. You want to find your position using the technique of partial resection, so you need to know that tower's bearing with a high degree of accuracy. 2. But I wish I had the simpler kind that just automatically points to the direction on the compass that I am . If the magnetic declinationin your area were zero, you'd proceed in the direction of 062 degrees. Identify your approximate location on your map. Draw a line towards the roadway youre on using the side of your compass. Step 2: line the compass up with the map. 1. Make an "L" shape with the index finger and thumb of your other hand. If everything is matching up, youre onto a winner. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). No worries. 4. Using the approach described above, plot that bearing on the map. What are 2 ways to orient a map? Sounds like a lot more than a regular compass, doesnt it? Another trick for declination when your compass cant adjust for it is to create your own declination arrow out of masking tape and tape it beneath your compass under the correct declination degree hash (This will only work if your compass has a clear base). 1 color. When the actual lens gets damaged, it unnecessarily impairs simple operation. Orient you compass with the bearing, and draw the bearing line. The courses of streams change, field boundaries move, new hedgerows are built, walls are plundered for buildings, glaciers melt, roads and bridges are washed away by floods, houses are knocked down and rebuilt somewhere else. 2. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); What is a Lensatic Compass and How to Use Them? Position of the point. Hold the compass steady and level, and up to your face. Come on in and save lots of money! With the thumb loop all the way down under the compass, put the thumb of one hand all the way inside the loop, and place the index finger of that same hand along one side of the compass. To use your lensatic compass to find the direction of your intended azimuth (which you probably got from your map, using your protractor): 1. Photo: Wikipedia. Use your thumb to pull the thumb ring back about halfway. As you can see, the declination of the location Im in is 4E. To make sure you receive a correct bearing, youll have to perform some arithmetic with all of your bearings. The cover is used to protect the compass and alsoincorporates thesighting wirewhich helps you determine direction. 5. Basically, the compass needle will point someplace east of true north in locations west of the agonic line, whereas it will point somewhere west of true north in areas east of the agonic line. Your lens piece will appear just above your thumb loop. There are so many different kinds of compasses, it can be hard to keep up. 3. If you want to learn Land Navigation in detail, either buy a book; or get someone, who has the knowledge and skills, to teach you in person. This is also known as triangulation. 4. 3 . Aligned the side of the compass with one of the north-south grid lines. If youre in the Adirondacks, youll want to add 14 so your true bearing would be 194. You discover that it has a bearing of 176. It would be 204 (24+180) in this situation. Get my Land Navigation coursehere. The back bearing is 50. To find directions from your map, you're going to need a protractor, a special instrument used for measuring angles. We still need to understand where we are in reference to our map how to orient ourselves before we can start really navigating, which well cover in Part III of this series. Plot a line on the map using the mountains rear bearing. You should be able to turn the map so that if you were to imagine jumping into it, the features would lie in the same direction both on the map and in your surroundings. "}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you do map orientation? Turn your entire body as a unit until your predetermined azimuth falls under the fixed black index line. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & More: A Manual On Food Storage and Survival: 2nd Edition Revised and Updated. Navigation has taken on many forms over the years. Articles - Email - Linkedin - Facebook - Instagram. Its not as easy to get lost on land without a map and compass. Place your map on a horizontal surface and then place the compass on the map so that the orienting arrow points to true north on the map. The needle on your compass dial will always be pointing north, so when placing the compass on the map, the needle on the compass should match the map's north in order to orient yourself. Take your compass and line up the edges with the north-south gridlines on your map. Customize the template with smart fillable areas. In this case, it would be 204 (24+180). $7.20. Looking at the photo below, let's say you're at the north end of Sheeler Lake, where the penciled X is. Start spinning the bezel slowly until the 'magnetized needle' is aligned with the 'orienting arrow.'. The following 30-minute U.S. Army training video from 1966 shows how to find your direction, orientation, and location with a mil-spec lensatic compass. The first step is to always take a compass bearing. Welcome back to the Art of ManlinessLand Navigation Manual. Holding any compass in a slack and half-a**ed (that's an old military term. We covered how to use a compass correctly, how to shoot your bearings, and the greatest map for navigating: the topo map, in Part I. At night, however, or in other periods of limited visibility (fog, blizzard, etc) keeping these two luminous bits lined up will be your only remedy. A power point class to Orient a Map Using a Lensatic Compass or $0.99 - Purchase Checkout Added to cart or $4.99 - Monthly Subscription Checkout Added to cart Billed once per month until cancelled or $14.99 - Annual Subscription Checkout Added to cart Billed once per year until cancelled or $9.99 - Protected: VIP Subscription Checkout Added to cart Billed once per year until cancelled . Line your orienteering compass's base plate up with the map's north-south lines. slide 1 to 3 of 3. Use the lens to look through the sighting line to find another landmark, and repeat until you reach your destination. We can find out easily enough, though. Adjust the compass bezel so that north on the compass corresponds to north on the map. ), but youre not sure where. 1. If youre in the Adirondacks, add 14 degrees to get a correct bearing of 194 degrees. Its a subtle difference, but its a roundabout way of saying lensatic compasses are less prone to interference than others. Leave your orientating arrow in line with the index line and the direction of travel arrow, as it will already be primed to point magnetic north. 3. True north is at the very top of the earth, while magnetic north is currently off the coast of Greenland. It will be clearer why we need to compensate for declination in the first place. With solid land-navigation skills, you'll be more confident and "at home" in the wilderness. Find out more atwww.alexfoxfield.com (opens in new tab). Half the activity of their sport is keeping their map oriented so they can navigate faster and with more accuracy. Well use the rear bearing of it to draw a line on the map from Saddle Mountain to our approximate direction. Well say the declination value is 10 degrees. Turn your declination-adjusted compass dial so due North is at the index pointer. . I guess the military needs the extra accuracy now and then say, for example, to precisely place artillery fire. Hold your compass in the two-hand hold, steady and level in front of you. 2. Take your compass and turn the compass housing (bezel) until the red orientating arrow is in line with the direction of travel arrow. Its not an issue. 3. How can you get your point position then? Orienting the Map with aLensatic Compass. Timetoprepare.net. Declination is the angle formed by true north and magnetic north. Theyre not traditionally used for camping trips or simple navigation, but if youre serious about prepping, this is a must-have in your EDC bag and bug out bag. But heres where things get tricky: the angle of declination changes depending where you are on the earth. Making sure you don't move to change directions, turn the glass compass housing until the short luminous line is directly lined up with the luminous magnetic arrow. Lastly, the reading lens also helps cover the compass and folds out; this is where the term lensatic comes from. That would be 130. What's that? Put your compass on your map. Announcement: My online Land Navigation course includes four hours of video instruction, and two downloadable PDF books, all for about the same price as a typical paperback book. Throughout this procedure, were not utilizing it at all.). Before we can start actually navigating, which well get to in Part IIIof this series, we still need to learnwhere we are in relation to our maphow to orient ourselves. You should notice that the direction of travel arrow should be pointing at the top of the map, and the black orienteering lines should also be parallel to the north-south gridlines on the map. Now hold your compass horizontally and point the 'direction-of-travel-arrow' towards the landmark. 5. You can use this feature to set your compass in the dark. Set your compass dial to 000 degrees. We need to compensate for the compass now that weve placed it on the map so that we can appropriately orient and travel. A map so lined up is easier to interpret and follow than a map spread out haphazardly. 3. Your compass is now set. [10] 4. If youre facing south, but are holding the map right side up, everything on your map is going to be ass-backwards. Start with contour features, such as what the ground is doing in front of you and around you, what happens to the terrain in the middle distance and then whats going on in terms of distant mountain peaks, ridges, hills and escarpments. The first step of orienting with our map and compass is to make sure north on the map lines up with north in our terrain. The reason contours are king is that they are fixed, at least in the timescales were talking about here. 3.30 MB. You see that its 230 in relation to your location. With that bearing, we can use our compass to start traveling in the direction we need to go in order to get to our endpoint. 2. Assume youve climbed to the top of Camels Hump in Vermont. 4. US $10.58 orient yourself to a map and follow a course over land The lensatic compass is used to set course bearings Instructions for Lensatic compass Open the lensatic compass so that the cover is at a 90 degree angle and the lens bracket is at a 30 degree angle to the case Lensatic Compass. number of degrees in a circle (360: north is 0 or 360, east is 90, south is 180, and. It's important to hold your compass stable, squarely in front of you, and level. 3. ), Podcast #858: The Affectionate, Ambiguous, and Surprisingly Ambivalent Relationship Between Siblings, How to Fight Entitlement and Develop Gratitude in Your Kids, How and Why to Hold a Weekly Marriage Meeting, You Dont Have to Be Your Dad: How to Become Your Familys Transitional Character, Podcast #810: How to Turn a Boy Into a Man, Sunday Firesides: Climb the Ladder of Love, Podcast #865: How to Win Friends and Influence People in the 21st Century, Podcast #863: Key Insights From the Longest Study on Happiness, Podcast #875: Authority Is More Important Than Social Skills, Podcast #874: Throw a 2-Hour Cocktail Party That Can Change Your Life, 9 Mental Distortions That Are Sabotaging Your Social Life, How to Make the Perfect Snowball: An Illustrated Guide, Podcast #869: The Survival Myths That Can Get You Killed, Skill of the Week: Survive Falling Through Ice, Podcast #848: The 5 Priorities of Short-Term Survival, we covered how to properly use a compass, how to shootyour bearings, and the best map for navigating: the topo map, Land Navigation Manual: How to Use the Military Grid Reference System, Land Navigation Manual: Finding Your Bearings & Topo Maps, More Than Just Finding North: Understanding the Compass, Podcast #534: How Navigation Makes Us Human. The legend. When we dont have our point position, we have to use less exact forms of orientation based on line or area position to find it: Line Position. If you don't, visit the page just hyperlinked. 5. The United States military needs to know how to navigate on land when all digital systems fail. Youve got your trusty compass and a map of the area, but you dont know exactly where you are in relation to the map. Turn your compass on its side. Title: USING THE MILITARY LENSATIC COMPASS 1 USING THE MILITARY LENSATIC COMPASS PART 2 Intermediate Land Navigation Module 14 Travel Distance Estimation 2 . The housing is marked with cardinal points, typically north, south, east, and west, which . Plot a line on the map from Saddle Mountain at 130. The cover is used to protect the compass and also incorporates the sighting wirewhich helps you determine direction. As long as youre lined up with your direction of travel arrow (keeping that north arrow visible for reference), you need to look through the sighting line and pick a landmark ahead of you. To do so accurately, however, we must first adjust our compass for magnetic declination so the reading taken from the compass arrow is pointing our map towardtruenorth as opposed tomagneticnorth. Keep in mind that maps are drawn with north at the top. 1. Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh. 6. You want to go cross country directly to Devil's Wash Basin, a deep and beautiful lake you've heard a lot about. Flip your compass upside down. We guide you on how to orientate a map with or without your compass so that you can navigate your way through the backcountry. A: To rotate a map in Beat Saber, you can hit the trigger button on your controller. Orient the map to the terrain. 3. 2. You will not be using it for the center-hold technique. functional from -50F to 150F. a. Take that bearing and plot it on the map using the technique explained above. Let's say you see a water tower off in the distance. Now were going to find out where exactly we are on that line. Find two or three easily identifiable features or landmarks on your map and then try to identify them in the terrain, or vice-versa. Orient a Map Using a Lensatic Compass 071-329-1011 Conditions: Standards: Orient the map to the ground using a compass. Without getting over-complicated, a standard compass is different from a lensatic compass. Assume youre going on a short trek from one location to another. Here's an example from an older map of the Grand Canyon. Not a problem. 3. Get your own customized topographical maps, built according to your specifications. However, we should be able to figure it out rather quickly. The U.S. military M-1950 lensatic compass shown in this video is still in use today. At this point, your map is almost oriented. Above: For this example in the Grand Canyon, grid north ("GN") differs from true . 2. 9-4. 2. to orient the map to find your position. A Cumbrian born and bred, his native English Lake District has a special place in his heart, though he is at least equally happy in North Wales, the Scottish Highlands or the European Alps. The floating dial is used to determine the direction in which you are pointing your compass. Now its time to use the lens. Shows how to use the USGI issue lensatic compass to orient the map, plot a course based on two well-defined. At that point, leave it out in a spot where it can really dry overnight until you know the internal components are no longer moist. Magnetic north lines up exactly when youre on this line and facing true north. So, if youre at Muir Woods and your compass reads 180 degrees, subtract 14 degrees. Take a bearing to a visible landmark using your compass. Were going to move that to take into account declination on our compass. They could be your saving grace during a SHTF situation. If your local declination is east of the agonic line, youll need to add the declination to your compass bearing; if its west of the agonic line, youll need to remove the declination from your compass bearing. You will receive a verification email shortly. 3. Finally, before setting off, be sure to do a quick check by looking around you to see that all features represented on your map are where they should be in the terrain. Were ready to start orienting ourselves now that our compass has been corrected for local declination. First, use your compass to get a bearing on a peak of Saddle Mountain. PARTS OF THE LENSATIC COMPASS Compass, Lensatic, US Army, closeup: 2 (From another source) 1. At the summit of Saddle Mountain, take a bearing using your compass. Step 2: Line up your lensatic compass with the North Star and make sure the index mark is on the star. You have your point location when you know precisely where you are in reference to your map. Open the compass all the way so that the cover locks into position against the base, forming a straightedge along the left side. Timetoprepare.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and Other Programs, an affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the Partners. surface. Easy-to-Read Thermometer - Cushion-mounted thermometer provides an "at-a-glance . Suunto M-3 Compass. ENROLL NOW. Orienting the Map with anOrienteering Compass. The number one destroyer of compasses and any enclosed items like these is moisture. 3. A: To rotate a map in Beat Saber, you can hit the trigger button on your controller. All you have to do is shoot a bearing towards the unidentified peak. Want to start taking action on the content you read on AoM? The instances navigation needs to be most spot-on are when visibility is compromised. Sound complicated? SMCT Orient a Map Using a Lensatic Compass. So, how are you going to acquire your point position? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. At this point, your map is almost oriented. To use your lensatic compass to find the direction of your intended azimuth (which you probably got from your map, using your protractor): 1. The orient a map to the ground by map-terrain association is one of the most basic skills that you will need in order to survive. We just dont know where exactly. Well say the declination value is 10 degrees. 4. A lensatic compass features a small pop-out area for your thumb, and a lid on top of the main compass body. To use the terrain to orient a map, you must be familiar with symbols used on the map. Hold it square and straight in front of you like you mean business. Because this method of orienting your map requires having visuals on features or landmarks in the terrain, good visibility is a must. It is the bread and butter of navigation and a good habit to get into every time you set off in any given direction. Fill & Sign Online, Print, Email, Fax, or Download Hey, it happens! Spread out your map. This involves trying to orient a map using only topographical features and your own eyesight. Whether or not you participate in orienteering, I'm confident you'll find that a properly oriented map is a huge help in finding your way. (Note: The magnetic compass needle should be ignored.) Most lensatic compasses are designed to withstand moisture to a certain extent, but nobody makes them perfect. Kierans bookClimbing the Wallsan exploration of the mental health benefits of climbing, mountaineering, and the great outdoorsis scheduled for release by Simon & Schuster in April 2021. On the other hand, wrap the fingers around the three fingers below the compass. Flip up the small magnifying glass. Corrected the orientations of the map when the G-M angle exceeded 3 degrees (50 mils) using one of the following: a. Look at which way the red needle is pointing. Hand placement: Insert your thumb through the thumb loop and the index finger along the compass. To find the tower's bearing with your lensatic compass: 1. Go to your map. Identify where you are on the map and place the compass edge over this location. (1) Compass-to-cheek method (figure C-21). Now, rotate the map and compass baseplatetogetheruntil the compass needle is boxed in the red orienting arrow (or direction-of-travel lines) on the compass. PART 1 Basic Land Navigation. What if youre not on a trail, but you just know the general area youre in?