It's fun to observe, use and understand the sun, moon, planets and stars while hiking and camping.  Obsidian John Hartman will discuss backcountry astronomy during the day, twilight, and night. He'll show how to use the sun, e.g. to organize hiking days and continuously determine direction. Sunset, twilight, and moonlight will be discussed. The movement and positions of the planets, stars, and other night objects will be described briefly.

This talk will emphasize practical, fun, enriching observations rather than theory. They can be made with unaided eyes, binoculars, and small telescopes, e.g. sun tracking, the green flash, moon illusions, satellites, meteors, comets, Jupiter's moons; and deep sky objects like star clusters, double stars, galaxies and nebulae.

John Hartman (Trail Name "Solar Time") enjoys long-distance hiking with the sun, moon, and night sky, and other outdoor activities. He is a web consultant and retired computer scientist.

A much more detailed presentation on Sun Position Position and Movement, given at Eugene Astronomical Society, is at softwareunderstanding.com/sun

Slightly Revised Slides (pdf)

(Includes supplemental slides at end with alt/az plots, analemma details, shadow tracing, and survival direction finding)

Handout With Resources (pdf)

Sun Motions Demonstrator 

Resources

My Sun Bookmarks

My Detailed Sun Presentation