How to find north without a compass

No compass, no signal? The sun and the stars still tell you which way is north. Here are four methods, from the most reliable to the roughest, and a helper with today's numbers for where you are.

1. The shadow-stick method

1. Push a straight stick about a metre long upright into flat ground.
2. Mark the tip of its shadow with a pebble.
3. Wait 15 to 20 minutes and mark the new tip of the shadow.
4. A line from the first pebble to the second runs roughly west to east. Stand with the first mark on your left and the second on your right: you are facing north.

It works anywhere the sun casts a clear shadow, in either hemisphere, and is most accurate around the middle of the day. Waiting longer between marks gives a better line.

2. The noon shadow

At solar noon — when the sun is highest — the sun is due south of you anywhere north of the tropics, so shadows point due north. South of the tropics it is the other way round: the sun is due north and shadows point south. Solar noon is rarely 12:00 on the clock: it shifts with your position in the time zone, daylight saving time and the time of year, so use the helper above for today's time. Between the tropics, the noon sun can be north or south of you depending on the season.

3. The watch method

With an analogue watch set to local time (or a drawn clock face):

• Northern hemisphere: point the hour hand at the sun. Halfway between the hour hand and 12 o'clock is south, so north is the opposite way.
• Southern hemisphere: point 12 o'clock at the sun. Halfway between 12 and the hour hand is north.
• During daylight saving time, use 1 o'clock instead of 12.

This is the roughest method: it can be off by 20° or more, especially near the tropics, early or late in the day, or if you are far from the middle of your time zone. Use it for a general direction, not for navigation.

4. The stars

• Northern hemisphere — Polaris: find the Big Dipper (the Plough). Follow the two stars at the end of its "pan" upwards about five times the gap between them, and you reach Polaris, the North Star. It sits less than 1° from true north, and its height above the horizon roughly equals your latitude.
• Southern hemisphere — the Southern Cross: extend the long bar of the cross about four and a half times its own length. The point you reach is near the south celestial pole; drop straight down from it to the horizon to find due south.

Compass north is not true north

A magnetic compass points to magnetic north, which can be more than 10° away from true north depending on where you are, and drifts year by year. Maps show the difference (the "declination"); NOAA's magnetic field calculator gives it for any place. The sun and star methods above find true north.

Sun and moon positions: NOAA's solar equations and Meeus's lunar theory (Astronomical Algorithms), the same code as our sunrise and sunset times, checked against the US Naval Observatory. City locations: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Your location, if you share it, stays on your device.