|
The Compass Rose
 The
compass rose is found on all navigation charts. The
most obvious job of the compass rose is to point to
true north. True north is where the meridians end
which co-insides with the North Pole. This is
indicated by the outer ring of the compass rose. The
inner ring of the compass rose contains your
magnetic heading. The magnetic north pole is not
located exactly at the North Pole. The closer one
gets to the North Pole the greater the error factor.
This error factor is called magnetic variation. If
your look carefully at the center of your compass
rose, you will see that the magnetic variance is
known for your location. Also, that it is a constant
number that must be added or subtracted from the
true numbers one finds on the chart. Hint: if the
numbers on the inner ring are greater than the outer
ring we must add the variance to all our
calculations to get a compass heading. If the
numbers on the inner ring are smaller then we do
just the opposite and subtract the magnetic
variation to get our compass heading.
Mark your Magnetic Variation on the space provided
on the Charting Pal so you will always have it close
at hand. |
