# How do I use a lensatic compass?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-lensatic-compass/474261
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 24, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-lensatic-compass/474261 "2008-11-24T16:23:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-lensatic-compass/474261/1 "2008-11-24T16:23:06Z")
I recently got a satellite finding kit to help me put up a dish, one part of the kit is a compass with some parts that I do not know how to use (in the end I just pointed the dish in the same direction as the neighbours and fine tuned it with the meter).
On Googling it is apparently a lensatic compass and it looks like like this:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Liquid\_filled\_compass.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Liquid_filled_compass.jpg)
It has a fold-out wire, another fold-out lens and a movable face with lines painted on it.
The Wikipedia page mentions taking angles from a map but it isn’t very detailed, obviously the needle points to magnetic north but I am interested in the other parts, can anyone tell me how to use them please?
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
---
### Author:  [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-lensatic-compass/474261/2 "2008-11-24T17:01:13Z")
Does this help?
[http://www.monsterguide.net/how-to-use-a-lensatic-compass.shtml](http://www.monsterguide.net/how-to-use-a-lensatic-compass.shtml)