Enable compass on SRV
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click on name -> About -> enjoy signature in full glory! for me once is enough, if at all
So does the directional indicator (sorry I can't call it a compass) just detect the planet or body's rotation and that determines what is north I assume? I had never really thought about it lol. I know they use the right hand rule for smaller objects in our solar system but I though that was relative to earth too. Maybe my brain is just not firing on all cylinders today either.
*edit to add that I am reading about orbital poles and now I'm really curious as to how the geo north is determined in the game.
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Currently, in the UK on a line roughly from Exeter to Stranraer, there is no difference between magnetic and grid north.
By May this year the line will have moved east as far as Cardiff. And will continue to London by May 2028.
<source : https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2019/03/magnetic-north-continues-its-march-to-the-east/ >
Mine changes fairly regularly and usually points to the latest community event that I'm most interested in (e.g. right now the latest Buckyball Race).
Ahhh, that assumes that people don't change their signatures tho.click on name -> About -> enjoy signature in full glory! for me once is enough, if at all
Interesting question actually. I use the "directional indicator" a lot for planetary circumnavigations (typically heading "East") but yeah, which pole does 0° point to I wonder? Presumably based on a particular spin direction?
I would have always thought a polar heading would be better for a planetary circumnavigation as it would be possible to stick on a 090° heading at lattitude say 55° where the circumference would be much shorter?
For true north, all you need is an inertial reference system. Something that is equipped to ships and srv’s
ED doesn't model magnetic poles (afaik) the poles are geographic poles and the compass uses these as reference. Noth pole is defined as the pole sticking "up" from the invariable plane in a star system.
Right but what I was wondering was how the geo north was determined. With what you're saying is that using the orbital poles then? What 777Driver wrote would that be a rotational pole or am I completely misunderstanding? Sorry if I seem a bit dense on this but OP threw me a loop when they called it a compass (which I know can be any device magnetic or non-magnetic as long as it shows direction, I'm just a simple old codger) as I always just thought of it as a heading display and got me to thinking about how the game determines geo-north and how it would handle tidal locked or chaotic rotations. Honestly I've relied more on coordinates but I guess you would need to establish a north for that as well.
Para Handy has posted the wiki article how the convention to determine north poles are. Each planetary system has some kind of plane where mosty of the bodies rest on while they rotate around the main body. That determines what astronomers agreed on the base for norths and souths on bodies.
No shortcuts!
Get on the equator and head 90° all the way around and back to the start.
It's called a compass, 0 is north, 180 is south, 90 is east, 270 is west, just like in the ship.
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Already there, as para Handy pointed out.
This is turning quite philosophical. "What Is North?"
I believe it to be the opposite of South
I guess the simple answer is that North is a heading of 0°. Does anyone know (or has it already been mentioned) which way up the game chooses for 0°? Is it (for example) always towards the pole which has the planet turning clockwise when you look down on it? Or perthaps it's related to the main orbital plane from a galactic perspective?
Yes, the plane. I really recommend the wiki article linked somewhvvrre above.