This guide will get you familiarised with a map and compass, teaching the basics of how to navigate with them, laying the foundation for you to head out and practice and hone your navigational skills.

You can see that location makes a great deal of difference in where the compass points. The angular difference between true north and magnetic north is known as the declination and is marked in ...

If you don’t adjust your compass to compensate, you’ll find yourself headed in the wrong direction. The easiest way to find the angle of declination is to check your map: most have declination ...

But in most areas, you’ll have to add or subtract to what your compass reads as north. Because magnetic north is wandering, it's important to have a modern map. Because even if the declination ...

Use the appropriate declination to convert the reading on your map to the reading you’ll use on your compass. Set your bezel ring to obtain a quick, reliable reading. Do this by aligning the ...

Map symbols, scale, and declination are keyed at the bottom of ... Here’s how: Step 1: Hold the compass face up at chest level and point the direction-of-travel arrow at a landmark, such as ...

Put “red Fred in the shed” to get your azimuth, and place your compass on the map as before after adjusting for declination (see below). The difference between True North (toward the North ...

As a result, to accurately plot a course using a compass, especially over a long distance, you have to apply something called ‘Magnetic Variation’, or ‘Declination’. This angle is stated in the key of ...