2/18/2019 Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

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Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line
By tonytran2015 (/member/tonytran2015/) in Outside (/outside/) > Survival (/outside/survival/) 838 15

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by tonytran2015 (Melbourne, Australia)

Finding North direction from the Moon cannot not be as accurate as from the Sun. There
are many causes for this:

1/- The Moon does not always rise on the east.

2/- We cannot work out by heart the Moon's declination (up to +/- 5.1 degrees to the
ecliptic, and 23.5+5.1 degrees to the Celestial equator ).

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2/18/2019 3/- We cannot easily work out
Finding when
North the and
Direction Moon
Timereaches
From the its highest
Moon, elevation
P2: Using angle.
Horn Line: The
8 Steps

Moon does not often cast strong shadows for shadow sticks to work.
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Here I describe my improved horn line method to nd out North direction and time from the
Moon. The method uses position of the Moon, shape (phase) of the Moon, solar declination
and user’s latitude to work out North direction and rough local time.

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Step 1: Basic Information on the Moon for Navigation.

(https://cdn instructables com/FNN/64JW/IKA2BGCV/FNN64JWIKA2BGCV LARGE jpg) (https://cdn instructables com/FEI/L5X9/IKZS9EFM/FEIL5X9IKZS9EFM LARGE jpg)

Figure 1: The Moon on the Celestial sphere. Figure 2: Moon phase chart for a Solar
declination of (-20) deg (South).

The Moon is a satellite of the earth. Everyday Moon-rise and Moon-set time is retarded by
about 50 minutes. This allows the Sun to travel further on its journey every subsequent
night. Therefore after full moon the partial bright side stays on the East (trailing) side and
dark crescent appears on the West and dark area gets fatter daily until the whole moon is
dark. Similarly, from new Moon a bright crescent appears on the West and grows fatter and
bright area gets fatter daily until full Moon is reached. From the shape of the Moon, it is
easy to say how late the Moon is trailing the Sun (new Moon trails by 0 degree and 0 hour,
new half-Moon by 90 degree and 6 hours, full-Moon by 180 degrees and 12 hours, and
late half-Moon by 270 degrees and 18 hours .). The shape and the position of the Moon
allow some guessing of its trajectory for the night.

The Moon completes its orbit in space in 27.321 days, and it completes one full revolution
on the Celestial sphere in that time. Its angular velocity on that sphere is 1/27.321 (rev/day)
= 0.036601 (rev/day) .

https://www.instructables.com/id/Finding-North-direction-and-time-from-the-Moon-p2-/ 2/17
2/18/2019 The Sun apparent travel on the
Finding ecliptic
North takes
Direction 365.256
and Time days.
From the Moon,Its
P2:angular velocity
Using Horn on the
Line: 8 Steps

elliptic is 1/365.256 (rev/day). The Moon revolves on the Celestial sphere faster than the
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Sun by an angular velocity of 1/((1/27.321)-(1/365.256)) = 1/29.530 (rev/day). When the
Sun is one full turn ahead of it, the Moon will catch up, and they will be both in the same
direction again on the Celestial sphere after a period of about 29.530 days. So the intervals
between consecutive full Moons will be something like a pattern of (30days, 29days).

By keeping records of previous full Moon nights people know it is a WAXING or WANING
Moon.

The simple Waxing-Waning rule is that the bright side of the Moon is on the West for
waxing and East for waning Moon.

It is natural for people to desire to use the horn line, which is the line connecting the two
horns of the Moon, to draw the North South direction. However it has been found that the
intersection between the horn line and the horizon does not accurately give the North
direction.

Here we nd out the reasons for that inaccuracy and show a more accurate method of
using Moon’s horn-line.

It may be easier for some readers to rst read step 5 then come back to read steps 2, 3 and
4.

CAUTION: The horn line of the partial Moon can point far away from the terrestrial
principal North or South directions.

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Step 2: Estimating the Current Solar Declination

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2/18/2019 Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

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Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line by tonytran2015 (/member/tonytran2015/) Follow

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Estimating the current declination.

The whole Celestial spherical shell rotates around its two Celestial poles. The Sun moves
slowly on that sphere on a great circle called the ecliptic. Its distance to the two opposite
Celestial poles varies periodically, and its distance to the Celestial equator is call the
declination of the Sun.

You can make a rough sketch of this declination from the principal values and estimate the
declination for the current day.

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Step 3: The Horn Line Is Not Easily Transformed to the Ground Meridian Line.

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2/18/2019 Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

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(https://cdn instructables com/FBY/BGCT/IKWXGIUH/FBYBGCTIKWXGIUH LARGE jpg)

Figure: Panoramic view of the travel of a partial Moon in the sky. The Celestial axis is
always at right angle to the path. This picture is for the winter, with the Sun in the other
hemisphere and the bright side of the Moon tilts toward the ground. In the summer, it tilts
toward the sky.

The horn line is at right angle to the plane containing the very slender triangle formed by
the Earth, the Moon and the Sun but the Celestial axis is at angle of (90-23.5) degrees to
that plane. So the horn line usually form an angle of that size to the Celestial axis.

Near to half-moons the horn line is easily de ned, and it is also easy to see that the
projection of the Celestial axis onto the half-moon makes with it an angle equal to solar
declination.

On top of those complication, the Moon also has its own declination and an observer has
additional dif culty working out the direction of the horn line as it is usually not at right
angle to his line of view.

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Step 4: Twisting the Horns of the Partial Moon

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2/18/2019 Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

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(https://cdn instructables com/FUZ/8WF5/IL26036M/FUZ8WF5IL26036M LARGE jpg)

Figure 1: Moon phase chart for a Solar declination of (-20) deg (South).

At half Moon, it is possible to twist the horn line about the line of view to generate a line KL
parallel to the Celestial axis. The amount of twisting is opposite to the declination angle of
the Sun. When the angle Sun-Moon-Earth is about 90°+/-30° (=120° or 60°) the amount of
required twisting is about 0.85*declination of the Sun.

The required twisting varies with the phase of the Moon as in the following:

Half Moon requires twisting by full Solar declination,

15% or 85% bright area requires twisting by half Solar declination,

full or no-Moon requires no twisting.

Remember that if the Sun is into your hemisphere (in your summer) the bright side of the
half Moon has to be twisted downwards (toward the Celestial equator) by an angle equal
to the solar declination angle.

The opposite should be done in your winter.

The amount of required twisting is given in the last line in gure for Moon phase in step 2.

This correction here already causes a difference between the results from the old horn line
method and the current method. There will be another difference caused by drawing the
"spear line" parallel to Celestial axis in the next section.
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2/18/2019 Note: Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

The required twisting on the horns of the Moon varies sinusoidally with time and peaks
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the values of minus/plus Solar declination when the Moon is half-full.

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Step 5: Finding North Direction From a Celestial North South Line Seen on the Moon.

(https://cdn instructables com/FJZ/EYC0/IAY1DEE5/FJZEYC0IAY1DEE5 LARGE jpg)

Observing a Celestial axis KML drawn on the Moon: U is observer, E center of the Earth, N
terrestrial North pole, S terrestrial South pole, M Moon, UV local vertical, KL a line parallel to
Celestial axis, EQ normal to plane UKL, UP a line parallel to Celestial axis. The red circle
through U is the intersection between the plane UKL and the Earth's surface.

Suppose that there is on the Moon M a line KL parallel to the Celestial axis, as illustrated in
the gure. We draw a plane through the observer containing the line KL. On that plane UKL
draw a line PU nearly in the direction of KL, descending into the ground at latitude
angle.That is

(|angle /(PU,KL)| <90° ) and (angle /VUP = 90 deg. - latitude angle).

The line UP is then parallel to the Celestial axis, and its projection on the ground gives the
local North South (meridian) direction.
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2/18/2019 When the Moon is high in the
Finding skyDirection
North and the plane
and UKL the
Time From is steeply
Moon, P2:inclined toLine:
Using Horn the 8local
Steps

horizontal, the last condition is the satis ed by

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( angle /MUV < angle /MUP ) and (angle /VUP = 90 deg. - latitude angle).

The line UP is then parallel to the Celestial axis, and its projection on the ground gives the
local North South (meridian) direction.

For Southern latitudes draw UP' close to the direction of LK (PUP' is a straight line).

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Step 6: on the Ground View of the Horn Line Method.

(https://cdn instructables com/FAT/JA5Y/ID2XC14A/FATJA5YID2XC14A LARGE jpg)

Figure: Finding out North direction more accurately using horn line.

On the half-Moon nights twist the horn line to generate on the Moon the line KL parallel to
the Celestial axis. When properly done, the plane UKL always makes with the horizontal
plane an angle not less than the latitude angle. Consider KL the rst approximation to the
Celestial axis. Draw a spear line PU co-planar to UKL, nearly in the direction of KL and
spearing the ground at an angle equal to latitude angle. The spear line PU so obtained is
then pointing more exactly along the Celestial axis, towards the lower Celestial pole. The
projection of PU onto the ground gives the terrestrial North-South line. Direction is then
found.
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2/18/2019 When the Moon is high in the
Finding skyDirection
North and the plane
and UKL the
Time From is steeply
Moon, P2:inclined toLine:
Using Horn the 8local
Steps

horizontal, the lower end U of the spear line is nearer to the line KL than its upper end P.
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Note:

The intersection line between the plane PKL and the ground surface is generally NOT in the
North-South direction unless the observer is on the terrestrial equator circle. The drawing
of the spear line PU cannot be by-passed in this method.

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Step 7: Summary of Steps in This Method.

(https://cdn instructables com/FLL/BOO4/IA8WVFPC/FLLBOO4IA8WVFPC LARGE jpg)

(https://cdn instructables com/FUZ/8WF5/IL26036M/FUZ8WF5IL26036M LARGE jpg)

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2/18/2019 Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

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(https://cdn instructables com/FB2/PWC8/IKA2DTFK/FB2PWC8IKA2DTFK LARGE jpg)

To apply this method, the navigator has to go through all the following steps:

a. Working out the ROUGH (+/- 45 degrees) principal North-Sout-East-West directions,

from the Waxing-Waning rule and the knowledge that the horn line direction is being close
to an RA arc,

b. Estimating the Solar declination for the current time of the year,

c. Working out the proportion of Solar declination used for twisting the horns of the Moon
from the Moon phase,

d. Twisting the horns of the Moon by the required angle and waving a stretched arm along
the adjusted horn line to establish the plane through the Earth, Moon containing the
direction of the Celestial axis,

e. Drawing a spear line inside that plane, inclined by latitude angle, aligned roughly to the
ROUGH direction of the lower Celestial pole to establish its exact direction, and

f. Projecting the Celestial axis onto the ground surface to obtain the terrestrial North-South
direction.

New users to this method should initially only use it as a double check for another method
using the position of the hidden Sun, given earlier as part 1, in a previous Instructables
article [2]. The agreement between the two methods would make users con dent on their
results.

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Step 8: Avoiding Hasty and Perilous Conclusions When Using the Horn Line.

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2/18/2019 Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

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(https://cdn instructables com/F2Z/NN4Y/IKK2EM76/F2ZNN4YIKK2EM76 LARGE jpg)

Figure: A rare (or not so rare?) failure of the simplistic, traditional horn line method. The horn
line intercepts the horizon near to the terrestrial North (wrong by 180 degrees!) in a place
in Northern hemisphere. The traditional horn line rule really requires amendments.

At latitude less than 28 degrees, the horn line may point to Northern skyline at high Moon
although most of the times it points to Southern skyline ! There is a peril of being sent
astray by 180 degrees for unreserved navigators.

At high Moon the horn line only gives North South direction near to equinox times ! The
error can be due East or West by the declination value of the Sun.

If the steps for using this method seem to be too complex, the Moon navigators may have
to accept reduced accuracy from the Moon and use only Waxing-Waning rule in
combination with the stars to navigate !

There is a third part to this topic, with the title "Finding North direction and time using the
Moon p3- Moon surface features".

References

[1]. Tristan Gooley, How to navigate using the Moon, the natural navigator,
http://www.naturalnavigator.com/ nd-your-way-usi...
(http://www.naturalnavigator.com/ nd-your-way-usi...) 2015, accessed 2015Jun12

[2]. tonytran2015, Finding North direction and time from the Moon, Instructables,
https://www.instructables.com/id/Finding-North-direction-and-time-from-the-Moon-p2-/ 11/17
2/18/2019 https://www.instructables.com/id/Finding-North-dire...
Finding North Direction and Time From the Moon, P2: Using Horn Line: 8 Steps

(https://www.instructables.com/id/Finding-North-direction-and-time-from-the-Moon/,)
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posted on Jun 9, 2015.

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