Solar panels will be on roofs that point ‘mostly’ south (at least compared to the other pitches).
Or west if there’s no slope on the north side of the roof.
Find a Muslim and follow him around until he prays. His left side will be north of his right side (assuming you’re in the United States).
Just watch the sun. It’s pretty simple.
Yeah, and the North Star at night.
True of Canada as well, not so much Europe. But the batshit cities of Boston and Charlotte are exceptions. Then there are cities with sections of diagonal, like San Francisco or Missoula.
The North X Street system completely varies. In some states/areas it designates the position of major streets vs. a central point. In others the quadrant of the city (many Oregon cities) and almost all streets have it. In other places it’s completely different streets, so N 5th St and S 5th St are parallel and miles apart.
Doesn’t work in Spain or France.
Buncha borealists…
I’d find the South Pole the usual way using Crux and the Centaurus Pointers. Then it’d be in the opposite direction of that, through the Pointers in the other direction, since they’re basically at the same declination…
There are methods to use the moon, it’s crescent and the direction of it’s shape of it’s ‘face’ (which can also show one is in the N or S hemisphere too). This is a snapshot method and not looking at it’s direction of travel.
Or New Orleans, whose street grid follows the river, at least the part of the city that’s north of it. It’s pretty disorienting; whenever I’ve gone there I almost always feel like I’m traveling in the wrong direction.
Look around for a large-ish pine tree. Look at the tip of the tree. If it’s leaning it will be leaning north.
(This is not a joke. I was taught this by my grandmother who used the pine tree in front of her house as the example. But perhaps only certain species do this.)
Also, the higher the elevation angle, the closer the dish is pointing towards the south*.
As noted above, this is harder to do in hilly terrain. It’s also been complicated by the increased use of offset feeds, which change the effective elevation angle of the dish.
*The angle the dish is pointing above the horizon.
Or if they’re Cook pines (Araucaria columnaris), they’ll lean in the direction of the Equator, so depending on which hemisphere you’re in, (general) North would be the opposite, or same direction, as the lean.
I know I’ve read this before, but where? Damn you, where!!?? It sounds like Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett to me. Dave Barry?
I don’t think that’s actually true in general.
It only works if both shadows are the same length (which means they were before and after local noon). What you need to do is get the stick, mark a shadow at some point in the morning, and draw a circle around the stick the same distance as the shadow length. Then wait until the afternoon shadow is just on the circle. Mark that shadow and connect them and you have a pretty good east-west line.
Here’s my contribution; it’s a variant of the moss one (and about as accurate): if there’s partly melted snow cover, the remaining snow will be on the north side of anything that shades it, and the melted areas will be south of obstacles.
How do you measure the height of a building using a barometer.
Ah yes, that’s the stuff. Thanks!
Find your location on a map. Usually, north is toward the top.
+1
Put out a pan of reindeer food sprinkled with crushed candy cane bits, then listen for sleigh bells.