A compass "rose" refers to the ornate floral design on historic naval maps illustrating the cardinal points of the compass: North, East, West and South. In total, the rose gives the 32 graduated directions the cardinal points can be broken into. When you use a map with a compass rose and a compass together, you can navigate streets, rural terrain or waterways.
Step 1
Place a map of the area you wish to navigate on a flat surface and turn your compass on the map until North for both the map and compass are the same. Allow for the difference between true north and magnetic north, which is about 5 to 8 degrees west of true north in the northeast United States.
Step 2
Find your location on the map as well as the location you wish to go to, and mark it. Place your compass at the start location on the map and calculate the exact compass rose direction to the final location destination. You can proceed with the compass direction from start to finish if there are no obstacles in the terrain. Exact direction can be broken into the 360 degrees of the circle for precise directions.
Step 3
Proceed in the direction of the map so marked or draw a route to travel if this is a longer trip than can be accomplished easily.
Things You'll Need
- Map with points of compass
- Compass
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