Orienting a Map and Compass

Hello Scouts, we're going to make a video here showing you a couple of things using the map and the

compass

together and we'll focus on first

orienting

the map and then heading between two points and we'll show you. two different techniques for that one with the map oriented and then the second technique when the map is not oriented so the first thing we're going to do is orient our map which means we're going to make sure that the map and the

compass

are facing north magnetic and for the purposes of this video, magnetic north and true north will be one and the same, so the first thing we're going to do to do that is we're going to Take our compass with a base plate and we're going to rotate and set the zero degree by setting a true north here at the top where you would read your heading and that is also where the bearing viola or degree dial, whatever you want.

I would like to call that coming into the intersection with the direction of travel arrow, so we'll set it to zero or 360 degrees and then we'll place it on the map and place it on the map at one of many specific locations, if your map you have these vertical grid lines, we're going to go ahead and align any of the side edges of your motherboard with the grid line so we can align this side. This side makes no difference if you're working on a map that doesn't have grid lines, then what you can do is align the edge of your space plate with the edge of the map border so you can make it either at the end or if you want to even across this nice flat surface here, you can align it to the top of the top that way keep in mind that the top of the maps is always written with the top facing north, so we know that this is north because we can read everything, this is the correct side up, so however, we go ahead and place our compass on this map, what we'll do next is rotate the entire map and the compass together. until the red magnetic needle lines up with the red

orienting

arrow here on our on our vial or on the compass case there are so many different names for this and people refer to them in different ways and then one of the ways in that people especially within exploration we will refer to get this condition here is that we call the magnetic needle read Fred and we call the orientation arrow is thrown so we put red Fred in the shed now by doing this we now know that this map is oriented correctly so that North is actually north, we verify that through our compass we will now keep the map stable.

This is now what is called an oriented map. It is correctly oriented towards north. Now, what if we wanted to take a course between two locations, a starting point and the destination? For example, what if we said we were going to go from this man-made structure to this man-made structure? With an oriented map, this is the easiest to do and is also great if you are doing something like this. In one exercise, we're going to take multiple bearings, but from one location to another or from another to another, because as long as you keep the map oriented, look how quickly we can do this by placing the edge of your base plate at your starting location, there's your destination, that's going to be your direction of travel, that's important to know because here's the direction of travel arrow, so you definitely want to have your compass like that, not like that, because that's the direction of travel arrow and that's the opposite to where you want to be like this from this man-made structure to that man-made structure with the direction of the travel arrow in the right direction, all we have to do to orient ourselves is hold the base plate and the map still so turn the road to the red shed.

Red Fred is in the shed, and that's it. At this point, you can now lift the motherboard and compass off the map. You read where the direction of the arrow, the direction of travel arrow goes down and intersects with your degree dial, and we see that We're around 280, maybe 284 degrees, so that's the easiest way to orient yourself and then, if you wanted to travel in that direction, you would hold this in front of you nice and flat, turn your whole body until Red Red Fred is in the shed and you know that that is the direction of travel for your correct walk and movements, so If you are standing in this place, this is how you should go, so now let's get a little more complicated, what happens if your map is no longer oriented, so it now represents North, but magnetically North is still in that direction and you want it to take the same starting point and destination now to do it because we can no longer rely on the magnetic needle to help us, we are going to rely on these grid lines correctly and we are going to join those grid lines with the lines of orientation that are on your compass now, on this particular compass, the grid lines are on my numbered dial, my degree dial on On many Scout compasses there are red lines along the vial, so it doesn't really matter, all of these lines are parallel so you can use any of those red lines and line them up so we have a starting point and a destination point just like the direction of travel still take the edge of your compass and line them up now you'll notice I'm Using my fingers here as an example to show you how the compass base plate can slide back and forth, since it doesn't matter as long as the edge of the base plate is still connecting your two waypoints, you can slide it back and forth. back and the reason I show you this is to get the best reading you want to move your base plate and your viola, viola or dial to the point where you can best align the orientation lines on your degree dial with the lines of grid of the map and if you have them in a straight line and they are aligned or oriented to each other, you will still arrive at the top and with about 284 degrees, just like we did with the second method or the first method, okay, so a revision oriented the map so north is north, so the map is magnetic north, the direction of travel north, everyone lines up and then we can go. go ahead and take bearings based on an oriented map by simply turning the dial and placing the magnetic arrow inside the orienting arrow and then we had the second methodology where on a non-oriented map two bearings could still be taken as long as keep in mind online means between your bearing lines and the grid lines of your map and again and anytime when you do that, remember that north is at the top, so when we were doing this exercise and we were moving these grids, we were rotating this vial to align the lines.

Note that North is at the top. We could have easily aligned the lines this way too, but North is at the bottom. It would be one hundred and eighty degrees. North is always the top of the map. Fine, thanks.