We are often taught information which we take at face value, with this in mind I decided to put some of this to the test during a two-day rest stop while on a canoe expedition to the Yukon.
We are taught that the sun is due south in the sky at noon, and this is true in the Northern hemisphere, so I took the opportunity to test this theory for myself while in another part of the world.
I collected a relatively straight piece of driftwood and improvised with a handful of stones, chose an open flat piece of land and set up a shadow stick, marking the end of the shadow with a stone every hour I was awake.
The large stone was placed at 12 o'clock, but as you can see from the photos, our magnetic north/south is closer to 3 o’clock, which got me thinking why.
On closer inspection, solar noon is shown by the position of the stones to be between 1 and 2 o ‘clock, as the stones are about the same distance from the shadow stick, noon would be about 1:30.
This still left a difference between noon, and true north, with a few things I needed to consider, the first being, does Canada practice daylight saving? And what is the difference between true and magnetic north in this area?
On further research, Canada does practice daylight saving, though not in the Yukon Territory, which makes sense with over 20 hours of daylight on the Summer Solstice when this was carried out. Noon on the Summer Solstice was at 1:20 pm. I also found that the magnetic declination, or the difference between magnetic and true north is between 21 and 22 degrees East of true North.
Taking this into account would put our north south line as shown by the compass, to true north when moved 22 degrees anticlockwise.
So in conclusion, in this case, what we are taught does work, but solar noon changes throughout the year, so maybe I’ll have to go back and try again at another time of year.