Why north at 180 degrees?
- Thread starter SelkieDVM
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OP
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It was a real question and perhaps I was not properly trained. I never been given a specific heading to navigate, just a general direction by pointing or chosen one myself. In then choosing the reciprocal or 90 degrees or whatever, it didn't really matter what the heading numbers were. Forgive me for trying to expand my admittedly lacking navigation skills and thank you to those who provided useful answers.
It is much better that you ask a question that you don't understand than to find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation.
Not all answers that you get to a question are as useful as others. Sometimes you'll have to weed through those answers to find the information that applies to you and learn which ones to ignore.
Safe diving!
mrfixitchapman
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Go get one of these. If you want you can just cut the base plate down to a circular shape that will fit into your console. Make a white plastic disk ,(I made one from a cottage cheese container lid), to go under the compass. As long as you have a liquid-filled compass it will work just fine. I have one zip-tied to a slate, too.
DC
DC
elan
Contributor
I take my words back. Sorry. I did think you were teasing us
I use the one from Sherwood Wisdom It's has clear view of the side. But I found it more comfortable to use the indirect reading. Though for that I need to rotate the bezel. This is just because the compass is installed on a console and it's less convenient to read it directly.
diver 85
Contributor
or the compass is marked incorrectly......Many years ago I saw a Suunto(sp) that was off 180 degrees---(& that diver always seemed to swim backwards--------------joking on the swimming but not on the mismarked compass)
In fact we were just starting out diving & I think I wound up with that compass---might be @ the bottom of my old old dive bag...
sschlesi
Contributor
The Suunto SK7 is a very popular scuba compass.
I would recommend, not to bother sighting through the little window, just navigate looking top down and forget about the window. Sighting through the window is an accurate method of take a bearing. When attempting to triangulate your position the surface you would typically use landmarks miles away, and being off a few degrees can make a big difference. Underwater you can't see far enough to bother with triangulation, and to head in the correct direction setting the bezel and looking top down is plenty accurate enough. Don't expect to follow a compass exactly to your destination, even on land where currents aren't an issue it is common to intentionally navigate to one side of your destination and then follow a road/creek/contour/gravel bed/reef/pipe/??? (depth works great for this wherever the bottom is sloped) to your final destination. By making sure your destination is known to be on your left or right you won't need to worry about guessing which way to turn to find it.
Hmmm, I got a little carried away with that answer.
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