Or, taking the organic approach: Stand up and look around. Which way is north? Which way is east? Face the east; the direction in which you find the sun in the morning.
Stand up and look around. Which way is north? Which way is east?
Face the east; the direction in which you find the sun in the morning.
The stars, on the other hand, always rise and set at the same points on the horizon, so you should use those for orientation.
The North pole is relatively easy to locate on the night sky. It is easiest to locate by taking a long photographic exposure overnight. The direction or North is the point of tangency of the horizon with the star trails that happen to pass tangent to it.
You can then turn 90 degrees right if you want to go East.
If you're on the Southern hemisphere there is no Polar star, but you still have star trails. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
plant a stick to observe from, use a second stick to mark sunrise, come back that evening, and mark sunset with your third stick,
Bisect the angle between the sunrise and sunset stick from the observer stick and that direction is north. There will be some very slight deviation from true north, butmuch less than you would get by looking at magnetic north, or grid north. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
