Sun compass
Bagnold-style steering by gnomon shadow. Input the sun’s true azimuth, set a course, and hold it while your vehicle or the terrain wreaks havoc on a magnetic compass needle.
Read the Sky, Rule the Ground
When the satellites go quiet.
A sun compass, circular slide rule, clinometer and land-navigation calculator in one field instrument. No batteries. No signal. No magnetic needle.
The line
Now shipping
NAVIGATOR ships now. EVASION, NAUTICAL, and the BREES are next.
Analog Navigation Instrument
EmNav NAVIGATOR
Made to order. Typically ships in 3–5 business days. A 5.95-inch laser-engraved circular instrument that co...
$189.00
Analog Navigation Instrument
NAVIGATOR Spare Kit
A spare index arm, plumb-bob weight, center screw with washers, and gnomons. The NAVIGATOR ships with hardw...
$29.00
The line
Coming soon!
NAVIGATOR ships now. EVASION, NAUTICAL, and the BREES are next.
Coming soon
EmNav Evasion Compass Set
Two small, powerful magnets. A compass you can hide. Two evasion compasses: an aperture (ring) compass you ...
$29.00
Coming soon
Analog Navigation Instrument
EmNav NAVIGATOR Printed Field Manual
A small-format, black-and-white printed edition of the EmNav NAVIGATOR field manual. The same pages emailed...
$18.00
Coming soon
Analog Navigation Instrument
EmNav BREES Emergency Sextant
When an improvised clinometer is not enough for an accurate latitude reading: two optical glass plates and ...
$129.00
Coming soon
Analog Navigation Instrument
EmNav NAUTICAL
A marine-oriented circular instrument for coastal and offshore backup: knots, nautical miles, LAN latitude,...
$199.00
No batteries. No signal. Just shadow.
Laser-engraved ABS — waterproof, fuel-resistant.
Small-batch, Made in the USA
The instrument
A circular slide rule that also steers by the sun.
Rotate the small disk to align C and D scales for multiplication, division, pace count, time-distance-speed and many more calculations. Use the engraved cursor marks for specialized calculations. Hang it from the gnomon eyelet and the disk becomes a sun compass.
Under the inner, small disk: Sun Declination and the Equation of Time. Black dots are full-moon dates. On the back: deliberate offset, slope factor, clinometer. Hang a plumb bob and determine celestial body altitude. One pocket tool you can't afford to be without.
Read the instrument
Drag the inner disk
What it does
Grid Down Navigation.
Analog GPS
Latitude from the noon Sun, Mintaka zenith or Polaris. Longitude from LAN and a GMT watch. Walk a known parallel until you hit the objective.
Circular slide rule
Standard slide rule 'C' and 'D' logarithmic scales to multiply, divide, ratios, pace count, fuel, range, and time-distance-speed.
Deliberate offset
Aim off 1–20°, read turn angle and offset distance at 100 / 500 / 1000 m. Arrive at the end of your pace count knowing exactly which way to turn and how far to go.
Moon compass
Black dots on the Equation of Time / Sun Declination plot are full-moon dates. A full moon behaves like a night sun.
Clinometer
Read slope angle, convert to percentage, apply the slope factor scale so map distance matches ground truth. Measure the altitude of celestial bodies for Latitude.
Heritage
Bagnold’s desert compass, rebuilt as a field calculator.
In the 1930s Ralph Bagnold designed a sun compass that let the Long Range Desert Group and British SAS hold a course across the Libyan sand when vehicle steel and local iron ore deposits ruined every magnetic heading. The EmNav NAVIGATOR takes that geometry and adds useful scales including logarithmic, deliberate offset, conversion and time scales that a modern land navigator actually uses, then engraves them for a rugged, all-purpose instrument.
Who carries it
I don't need signal. I need skills.
Phones die. GPS jams. Magnetic compass needle lies. EmNav is the analog layer underneath all of that; training tool first, emergency instrument second.
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SERE / military navigators
Offset, pace, back azimuth, night movement.
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Preppers and field kits
EMP-proof. No batteries to rotate.
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Hikers, overlanders and sailors
Sun compass when a magnetic needle is suspect.
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Night movement
Moon compass and illumination estimates.
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Instructors
Teach the method, not the gadget.
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And much, much more.....
Built for jobs we have named — and some we have not.
When everything else fails, we won't.
Carry a method, not a battery. Training, education, demonstration, and emergency backup. Compass, sun, map. Then walk. The prudent navigator always cross-checks with other instruments. Never treat analog aids as a certified primary system.