A visualization depicting the Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks (STP 21-1-SMCT) task Orient a Map Using a Lensatic Compass (071-COM-1011). Navigation has taken on many forms over the years. This involves trying to orient a map using only topographical features and your own eyesight. "}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you orient a map to ground? Once you are physically at your starting location, its time to put your compass to good use. Your map (and yourself) are now be orientated north. 3. Make an "L" shape with the index finger and thumb of your other hand. As a result, your real bearing is 166. One disadvantage is, unlike the orienteering compass, it's not easy to make it double as a protractor, meaning you'll have to carry a protractor with you. ), 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. Finally, you can always triple check with human features, such as walls or towns that youd expect to be able to see in the valley. Spread out your map. 2. Thanks so much for sharing! As long as you can hold the compass level and steady, the exact grip doesn't matter. Because my magnetic declination is 4E, Ill move the black arrow outline to the red hash marks next to E DECL.. To obtain a heading from our map, we may use our compass as a protractor. Its one of the most versatile navigation tools we have available today. When we know our point position, we can identify any landmark that we see in our terrain by using the map. 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. How to Determine the Bearingof a Distant Object. Want a free ebook on Land Navigation? If your compass doesnt have a declination adjustment key, simply make the adjustment on the spot. Step 4: Walk along the path and make sure your compass always points North. The instructions on this page might make orienting a map seem a highly technical thing. Steady the compass by allowing the hand holding the compass to rest in the cupped palm of your other hand. With the map level, place the compass . Program, Strengthen Your Tribe: A Report on the Atomic Athlete Vanguard, The Best Riddles for Kids (With Answers! Your lens piece will appear just above your thumb loop. Declination was taken into account while adjusting the compass. Hold your compass in the two-hand hold, steady and level in front of you. Once you know that you're facing north, rotate the compass so that the luminous line is over the 170-degree mark. You should then be able to roughly work out which way is north, east south or west using your maps gridlines. 3. Uses a retractable lens to read the bearing while. PART 1 Basic Land Navigation Module 6 Map Information WARNING This presentation is intended as a quick summary, and not a comprehensive resource. You cant see the end point in your terrain, so you cant shoot a bearing on it. 5. Hed just line his map up with the features of the lake we were currently on to find our portage to the next lake. The big idea normally is to have your map more or less line up with the terrain so you can make sense of where things are around you. Position of the point. Lets go to the other side of the country. How To Get Your Map and Compass To Face the Same Direction. There are step-by-step to use a compass. My 159-page, fully illustrated book is yours for the asking. You can use this feature to set your compass in the dark. Brett May 23, 2016 Last updated: June 2, 2021. How to Pack a Backpack Are You Doing it Right? At least, I never saw him with one. Performance Steps 1. You will not be using it for the center-hold technique. Imagine that you want to hold it as if it were firmly mounted in that position. Draw a line on the map at 130 degrees from Saddle Mountain. 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. Next, turn the compass housing so that the index pointer corresponds to the number of degrees of the magnetic declination. You discover that it has a bearing of 176. Place the thumb of the other hand between the rear sight and the bezel ring; extend the index finger along the remaining side of the compass, and the remaining fingers around the fingers of the other hand. It will make it easier to understand why we adjust for declination in the first place. Line your orienteering compass's base plate up with the map's north-south lines. The cover is used to protect the compass and also incorporates the sighting wirewhich helps you determine direction. In this case, it 15 degrees positive (east). Point position. When youre on this line and are facing true north, magnetic north lines up perfectly, too. Positioned the cover of the compass toward the top of the map. How to use the Lunatic Compass Map Orientation by compass Magnetic Azimuth A magnetic azimuth of any object is the compass reading of a direct line across the center of the compass to the object. Lensatic compasses are made up of three parts: cover, base, and reading lens. Orient a Map Using a Lensatic Compass 071-329-1011 Conditions: Standards: Orient the map to the ground using a compass. OEC G&V. Download. (Note: if you have a compass with an adjustable declination the adjustment needs to be set to zero). To orientate the map, rotate both the map and compass together until the red compass needle and the red orientating arrow match up. Note: This procedure places the fixed black index line of the compass parallel to north-south grid lines of the map. 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. Its 230 degrees in reference to your position, as you can see. This is because technology is fallible, batteries run out, cold kills gadgets and theres always the possibility of dropping a device down a steep slope or into a rushing river. All you have to do is shoot a bearing towards the unidentified peak. Use the lens to look through the sighting line to find another landmark, and repeat until you reach your destination. Nothing is permanent and contours are more permanent than pretty much everything else on a map. Rotate the compass dial until north on the compass ring lines up with north on the map. Now repeat step 3 above and youre good to go. Turn your entire body as a unit until your predetermined azimuth falls under the fixed black index line. PARTS OF THE LENSATIC COMPASS Compass, Lensatic, US Army, closeup: 2 (From another source) 1. Throughout this procedure, were not utilizing it at all.). You now have your target's bearing. In actual practice, orienting your map is something you'll often do "on the run" and can be as simple as glancing at your compass needle and turning the map more or less accordingly. You want to know how to use a lensatic compass? west is 270). When you have a line position, you know that youre on some identifiable line on the map (trail, ridge line, etc. This is also known as triangulation. Wrap your middle, ring and pinky finger around your thumb for support. Whenever the luminous magnetic arrow lines up with the luminous short line, you're following your intended azimuth. In my. To prevent this issue, well tweak our compass to account for declination. Because this method of orienting your map requires having visuals on features or landmarks in the terrain, good visibility is a must. (1) Take the straightedge on the left side of the compass and place it alongside the north-south grid line with the cover of the compass pointing toward the top of the map. Dont worry that your red orientating arrow doesnt point exactly map north. Some of the components' terms are used in the explanations below. On your map, shoot the back bearing that you just took with your compass from the top of Saddle Mountain. Mt. Below, we offer a short, straight-talking guide to how its done. Procedures. 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. ? north. Sometimes limited visibility means terrain features may not be visible. Spatial awareness refers to having knowledge about where everything in the environment is located relative as well as understanding how objects relate with each other spatially. You can look through a small window of the top (thats the lens), and navigate smoothly from there. 5. Say your azimuth was 170 degrees. Timetoprepare.net. Half the activity of their sport is keeping their map oriented so they can navigate faster and with more accuracy. . So, if youre in Muir Woods and your compass has a bearing of 180, youll want to subtract 14. Your action from here depends on the value and direction of your declinationeast or west. . Orient you compass with the bearing, and draw the bearing line. Best Camping Knife for Outdoor Adventures, Best 4-Person Tent For Camping [2023 Update], How to Use a Fire Starter: A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide, How to Dispose of Butane Cans (and Other Solvents), Best Hikes in Colorado: 17 Incredible Trails, Types of Backpacks: The Ultimate List of 23 Pack Styles, Learning one of land navigations primary skills, Turn your map using your map and compass together, How to check your map is oriented correctly. There is some technical difference between the two, but for all practical civilian purposes, the words are interchangeable. Center-hold. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). There is no declination, and you do not need to adjust your compass. 2. Once you reach your landmark, align yourself again to make sure youre on the right path. Hold compass up to eye level and view larger side card for "direction-of-travel" compass. For bearings of one to 179 degrees, rotate the bezel counter-clockwise. To begin, use your compass to locate a peak on Saddle Mountain. Keep doing this until you get to where you want to go. Magnetic North is 15 East. So in this installment, well go over the skills you need to do just that. Turn the compass cover more or less perpendicular to the base. To use your lensatic compass to find the direction of your intended azimuth (which you probably got from your map, using your protractor): 1. 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. Lets say youve hiked the peak of Camels Hump in Vermont. In your case, however, your declination is 004 degrees West, meaning you'll have to add 004 degrees before you set your compass. Sometimes we may use GPS technology or navigational apps to find our way, but we will always have the option of a map and compass stashed safely in our hiking backpack. Module 11 Plotting Position Coordinates exact positioning, used to communicate to others with a You can also use this website to get up to date declinations. Hold the compass with your thumb fully in the thumb ring, and your index finger wrapped around and gripping the circular part of the underneath of the compass's base. 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. Fortunately, orienting your map is simple. Now its time to store your compass. number of degrees in a circle (360: north is 0 or 360, east is 90, south is 180, and. Any kinds of magnets whatsoever. To make sure you receive a correct bearing, youll have to perform some arithmetic with all of your bearings. Then turn the map until the position of the landmarks on the map corresponds to the real-world features in the terrain, then cross-check your position with additional features to ensure you have oriented correctly. Adjustable Declination Compasses. Close is good enough in horsehoes, but I'm hoping exact is the standard for artillery fire. Pull the ring underneath the compass and put your thumb through. Remember how we spoke about declination in Part 1? Heres how it works. Were going to use the back bearing of that to plot a line from Saddle Mountain towards our general direction on the map.