Why north at 180 degrees?

[thanksforallthefish]

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

I am used to "Land Based" compasses ... many years of surveying and hate all scuba compasses ... I use an orienteering compass as does mrfixitchapman ... works great

One problem i have always had with scuba compass is getting it level, with the orienteering compass no problem

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

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.

I have always heard that a picture is worth a thousand words...

​

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

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.

It is not hard to learn how to use a SCUBA compass. A DM should be able to show OW students how to use a SCUBA compass.

There are dive sites where navigating a specific heading is required to reach your destination, especially when using scooters. There are many points of interest off the South Maui shore that I know a number of headings to and fro.

If I had not been proficient at using the window I might not have had the confidence to go out and find all those cool spots.

 

[Blackwood]

What's a compass?

Something you use to draw circles.

 

[sschlesi]

It is not hard to learn how to use a SCUBA compass. A DM should be able to show OW students how to use a SCUBA compass.

There are dive sites where navigating a specific heading is required to reach your destination, especially when using scooters. There are many points of interest off the South Maui shore that I know a number of headings to and fro.

If I had not been proficient at using the window I might not have had the confidence to go out and find all those cool spots.

It's not hard to use the window, I started out using and and over time found it's just not worth the extra effort most of the time. I had originally written a caveat that a scooter may require greater accuracy in following a heading as distance covered and therefore the size of errors can be much greater, but deleted it as I was already plenty long winded in what should have been a simple reply.

I've never used a scooter, and I'm curious, can you mount a compass to your scooter, or is the magnetic field from the motor strong enough to bias the compass?

 

[captain]

I am used to "Land Based" compasses ... many years of surveying and hate all scuba compasses ... I use an orienteering compass as does mrfixitchapman ... works great

One problem i have always had with scuba compass is getting it level, with the orienteering compass no problem

Cheap and they work great. All I ever used.

 

[Dtaine]

I've never used a scooter, and I'm curious, can you mount a compass to your scooter, or is the magnetic field from the motor strong enough to bias the compass?

Yes.

You can mount a compass to a scooter, or at least the ones I've seen. Been on a scooter once, can't wait to dive them more.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

You can mount a compass to a scooter, or at least the ones I've seen. Been on a scooter once, can't wait to dive them more.

If you mount the compass to this scooter then the term mounting your scooter takes on a whole new meaning!

​

 

[Deefstes]

Rather looks to me like the scooter is mounting the diver...

 

[SelkieDVM]

I have always heard that a picture is worth a thousand words...

Except that I can't read the numbers through the window in your picture either.
I actually have to hold mine above eye level to be able to do so. It seems obvious now, of course. We don't have students take specific bearings, just navigate a straight line and back or a square in some random direction. And looking back through my OW and AOW manuals, no where does it mention the window either. I can see why it would be important for certain dive sites or scootering.