I recommend the old Air Force Survival Manual (AFM 64-5). I picked up a copy at the US Government Printing Office in Washington 20 years ago. It has a full section on the basics of celestial navigation using techniques familiar to us dialists. Find your location (Latitude and longitude) and direction (north) using the shadow of a stick. Make a sextant from fishing line or parachute cord. Find your latitude from the length of daylight, or by measuring solar and Polaris altitudes with a Weems Plotter. A fascinating book; I recommend it highly as an appropriate reference book as we approach the end of the millennium.
A few disclaimers are appropriate. Are your sundials certified Y2K compliant? On my backcountry explorations, my survival kit does not contain a parachute with all that useful cordage and fabric. My weapons are limited to a Swiss army knife and a big stick. Most of the advice in the manual is therefore not applicable. Accuracy is limited with such navigational techniques. For example it would be difficult to determine whether you came down in Kosovo, Macedonia or Serbia. This could be important! I guess things have changed since AFM 64-5 was published. Roger Bailey Walking Shadow Designs N 51 W 115 "At 07:23 PM 5/13/99 -0400, you wrote: >The originator of the survival sundial was Naval Academy graduate >Bob Owendorf. His name was on the tip of my tongue, but it took >Harold Brandmaier to kick it off for me. Thanks, Harold. I >believe Bob still lives in the Annapolis area. > >Ross > >
