• Example NOAA chart compass rose.
    Articles,  Technique

    Navigation: Variation and Declination

    A compass needle seldom points directly to the north pole, because Earth’s magnetic fields pull the compass needle towards what is known as magnetic north. Because the angle between true north, the direction from you towards the north pole, and magnetic north varies from place to place, we must account for that variation when navigating. This difference is known as declination. It’s different from Magnetic Deviation, which is a local magnetic field creating an error. [info green box title=”Variation or Declination”] The terms variation and declination refer to the same feature. On a map refer to it as declination. On a chart refer to it as variation. [/info green box]…