Talk:Magnetic declination

Rewrite in progress

I'm using my Talk page to host a draft. I've managed so far to remove a lot of the redundancy, put some concepts where they belong, add some basic explanations, and upload a couple of new images. I still have to work on the compass usage and navigation sections. All suggestions are welcome! —Preceding undated comment added 05:15, 10 March 2010 (UTC).

Total re-write required

This page is badly written, very amateurish, verbose and confusing, it badly needs to be re-written. Frankly, the term 'Magnetic Declination' is a misnomer in itself. It should be Magnetic Variation. This removes a whole layer of confusion. Magnetic Deviation could then be explained perhaps as an adjunct in relation to compasses mounted on vehicles etc. The rest could be much more simply and clearly explained. As it stands, the page is, frankly, gibberish. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.111.22.90 (talk) 18:05, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. I came to add a small image explaining how to compensate, and found about 5 different explanations, including a wrong statement. I'll do a bit of trimming now and will come back later arielCo (talk) 06:48, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Navigation equations

If a easterly deviation is considered positive, and a westerly negative.. shouldn't the equation be standardized to reflect that? Currently it shows a "Compass Bearing +/- Deviation = Magnetic Bearing", but this is ambiguous.. do you subtract a negative westerly deviation or add it? csnoke 18:35, 17 April 2007 (EST)

Too many comments for one day! But this highlights exactly what I mean by "terminological thicket". The "east is least/west is best" stuff is likewise. Can the presentation be simplified? What do professional navigators actually do when on the job? I find it hard to believe any of them are muttering about virgins as they go about their computations -- as this article somewhat suggests(!). mdf 13:19, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Definition of Magnetic Declination is in doubt

As it in the article: The magnetic declination at any point on the Earth is the angle between the local magnetic field -- the direction the north end of a compass points -- and true north.

According to FAA, it is the angle between true north and magnetic north. Direction compass points is not magnetic north, because bearing of compass is affected not only by the local magnetic variation but the carrier's own magnetic field as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Natasha2006 (talk • contribs) 18:40, 25 April 2007 (UTC).

See my comment below: the magnetic field of the Earth doesn't care about your difficulties in making the measurement. Rather than confuse the matter, I strongly recommend a strict separation between the field itself, and to how the field is exploited by navigators. mdf 13:08, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

The image is not correct either

Explanation is the same as it for the definition.--Natasha2006 19:05, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Fixed "East is Least/West is Best"

This was backward. A west variation means that magnetic is less than (counter-clockwise from) true.

Grid magnetic angle

The article claims that magnetic declination is "also known as grid magnetic angle in military circles". However, grid north is a property of the map projection, not the planet: it will be close to, but not in general exactly "true north". Various checks on the net confirm this view, so I'll be removing it in a day, unless someone objects.

I'll also say that over the year or so since I last edited this, a fair amount of confusion has been added here. This no doubt reflects the "terminological thicket" that surrounds a great deal of the art of navigation. Perhaps some simplicity may be restored by isolating all the navigation stuff, either in this article, or moving it all to another. After all, "magnetic declination", as defined in the intro here, is a component of the local field, unsullied by whether or not the guy making the measurement is wearing an steel watch, and wants to get from where he is to where he wants to go (see: http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/field/magdec_e.php for more on this distinction). mdf 13:02, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Grid Magnetic Angle (GMA) and Magnetic Declination are two completely different things. GMA is the difference between Grid North and Magnetic North whereas Magnetic Declination (AKA Magnetic Variation) is the difference between True North and Magnetic North. The difference between Grid North and True North is known as Convergence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.139.36.214 (talk) 12:16, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Animated image is too large

The animated map of changes over time is a very large file: it weighs in at 3.4MB. Can I suggest we put a link to the Commons instead? It just doesn't seem sensible causing users to load such a large file as part of the default page. El T (talk) 12:11, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

What about a movie? Another option would be another animated GIF with less frames, either by spanning less years or skipping some —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arielco (talk • contribs) 05:10, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Declination Not the Same as Variation

Comment 1 still broadly holds. The term declination is more often used with regard to some specific vertical angles. In all the references that I have checked, both in American and English English, as far as maritime and air navigation are concerned, the terms Variation and Deviation are used exclusively. As a sign of the success of wikipedia, I was pointed to this page by a compass manufacturer whose confusing Operating Manual uses the term declination thereby conflating Variation and Deviation, and making a nonsense of their instructions. I suggest that the page is likely to be more useful if re-shaped, based on Variation & Deviation (and dip if you want completeness), even if it is necessary to cross refer to the term magnetic declination if some US Sources use that term. Simon Jackson Charts (talk) 00:37, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Magnetic south ?

Besides the magnetic north, I read about the south pole also being magnetic; thus an obvious question is that when you travel to the southern hemisphere, does a regular compass point to the magnetic south ? I also haven't seen any article about the magnetic south at wikipedia

Another thing I read and which must be described in the article is that the magnetic north/south? "walks"; meaning that where your compass points to today, it won't point in a few years. This is also the reason why the charts are based on the "true north"; these charts don't need to be changed every few years and remain correct.

Finally, to explain why the variation changes with the location, it should be mentioned that the magnetic south is located at Bathurst, Canada. The variation changes as relative to this location, a higher or lower amount of inaccuracy occurs.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.180.239.232 (talk) 14:09, 8 October 2009 (UTC) 

Air Navigation

The sentence "[f]or example, near San Francisco, TRUE north is about 14.5 degrees less than magnetic north" follows a claim that up-to-date values of magnetic variation are required for air navigation purposes. If this is true, then include the year during which the stated variation is valid and the annual rate of change. Without these additional pieces of information, the sentence might as well be removed, as it contradicts the preceding part. (Weirpwoer (talk) 20:10, 29 November 2009 (UTC))

Fixing this article

As several editors commented above, this article is a bit of a mess. It's sort of a hodge-podge of random information about the phenomenon of declination (the ostensible topic of the article), plus some random stuff (some of it wrong) about how to use a compass and a map, etc. It needs a major rewrite, but I'm not sure where to begin. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:59, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Needs global perspective

The article is in need of some global perspective. As written, the article is strongly USA-centric. Every example in the article that is geographic is for the continental USA except for one bad example that is general to the Northern Hemisphere with no Southern Hemisphere equivalent provided. All of the organizations named are American. -- B.D.Mills  (T, C) 23:36, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Non Adjustable Compass

The article's advice to 'add' 14° when the magvar is 14°E is clearly wrong. To get your True Heading in an environment where the magvar is 14°E, you should subtract 14° from your Magnetic Heading (or the compass pointer). Get some Boy Scouts, sailors, hikers or pilots involved in this article. No disrespect meant to any other navigators out there. 24.151.15.175 (talk) 16:50, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

I think the article is correct. And, I used to be a Boy Scout and I live in southern California where my magvar actually is 14E. If I set the bezel on my non-adjustable compass to 0° and orient it so that its needle lines up with the readred orienting arrow, then my "magnetic heading" is 0° but I'm actually facing 14° east of true north. Bruceadler (talk) 17:53, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Obsolete example

"As a traveller cruises the east coast of the United States, for example, the declination varies from 20 degrees west (in Maine) to zero (in Florida), to 10 degrees east (in Texas),"

This example must be taken from a very old textbook or reference. As the current NOAA map shows, the magnetic declination anywhere on the coast of Texas is not 10 degrees east. Around 60 years ago, it was.122.106.205.74 (talk) 19:34, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

The above observation is correct. The text says, " ... Florida = zero and Texas = 10 degs east" The Map [2010] shows Florida = +5 and Texas -5 (on the average). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.171.104.135 (talk) 22:49, 15 February 2012 (UTC)