Compasses ?

[Horus]

What type of compass do people use to orientate themselves ?, I'm thinking of buying Digital compass

[Psychobilly]

Silva...

[rowan46]

I use an ordinary silva one if I have to use a compass. normally I just point the mount at polaris. I don't know why because I have an alt az mount.

[Lensman]

Just a straight forward map compass - no batteries to fail

[brantuk]

Just a Silva compass for setting the base/tripod roughly north. Then use the pole star to polar align an eq, or set latitude on a dob.

[Staffy]

A Silva compass works well provided you are not on a balcony and surrounded by other magnetic things (handrails etc) as my set-up is. That sends north off in all sorts of odd directions depending where I happen to be standing (or even facing). In the end I would set up my EQ mount on Polaris. Now I have an Alt/Az Goto mount though I don't have to worry about that anymore as it only needs a couple of stars for reference.

[E621Keith]

A Silva Expedition 4 during the day and when it is cloudy, Polaris during clear night.

[Psychobilly]

Silva 15T is my weapon of choice ... given to me by someone who couldn't be bothered to learn how to use it properly... his loss my gain...

Billy...

[valleyman]

one that points North

[nightfisher]

i must get another i sold my old mount for a restoration project and forgot to remove compass

[Freff]

My old army prismatic compass. Don't tell them I still got it, it's worth a fortune now.

[ollypenrice]

High altitude mountaineers use SIlva compasses. Of course, if you think that IT products are worth betting your life on, you can always do that...

Olly

[Psychobilly]

I guess these days you can "get an app for it"....

[Pug]

Silva ranger 3, about £15

[Photosbykev]

I guess these days you can "get an app for it"....

There's a reasonable compass on the iPhone and you can get an inclinometer app that is accurate to 1/2 degree certainly good enough to find polaris

[jamespels]

Surely you just know which way is north? Or are you talking about trips away - presumably on these times though you can just look up and work it out?

I use a compass A LOT hiking in **** weather (bog standard map compass), backed up by GPS on my Android phone but have never yet needed one to work out where Polaris is...

Do GOTO mounts have a lot to answer for or am I missing something?

[rowan46]

Surely you just know which way is north? Or are you talking about trips away - presumably on these times though you can just look up and work it out?

I use a compass A LOT hiking in **** weather (bog standard map compass), backed up by GPS on my Android phone but have never yet needed one to work out where Polaris is...

Do GOTO mounts have a lot to answer for or am I missing something?

I have goto and no problem finding north but a compass can be useful if there is cloud obscuring that bit of sky

[rowan46]

I guess these days you can "get an app for it"....

I don't have iphone but I read somewhere that theres an app for true north. I must admit that sounds handy

[jamespels]

Is sighting along a compass accurate enough for decent tracking? Guess I was assuming that _some_ cloud would stop viewing and hadn't considered a compass as something I would need...

That does make sense, though - thanks.

[jamespels]

I don't have iphone but I read somewhere that theres an app for true north. I must admit that sounds handy

Forgot - one of the home screens on my Android phone is also a compass... Has a reasonable inclinometer but not something I would rely on.

[Horus]

Thanks guys

[NickMilner]

I use my iPhone compass. I also use the PolarAlign app which tells me where Polaris should be in my polarscope. Well, I say I use it, I have it, but I just point north and leave it at that!

[acey]

As a dob owner who drives away from home to observe, I use a compass to tell me where south is, since that's where objects rise highest. No idea what make it is - got it free with something.