which end is up
Last week I was lucky enough to be with a group using a map and a compass to determine where we were and where we were going. This was exciting, and very satisfying when we ended up where we had planned.
I love maps. I love accurate, “real” maps, and I love maps of imaginary places.
Here is a beautiful map by the artist Karey Kessler. I saw a map of hers in the book “The Map as Art”, and also found this one on line:
I also have been thinking about true north and magnetic north. I am not concerned about this on a day-to-day basis, but if I am relying on a topographic map to get around – and not located at the 0-degree line of declination – I must take into account the difference between magnetic north and true north. Magnetic north varies in different parts of the world, and is constantly changing! Although it is “constantly changing”, it is not swinging around so wildly that you cannot estimate it for effective map-reading purposes. There are maps that show the approximate magnetic declination, such as this one:
The earth is a giant magnet!
A farce of disintegration … lovely.