Compass rose

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Compass rose

For Compass Airlines, an Airline in the US using the Callsign "Compass Rose," See Compass Airlines
Compass Airlines (North America)

Compass Airlines is a regional airline based in Chantilly, Virginia, an area in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, Virginia, United States....

A compass rose is a figure displaying the Orientation of the Cardinal direction

Cardinal direction

Map

A map is a visual representation of an area?a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as Object , regions, and topic-comment....
or nautical chart

Nautical chart

A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a Sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land , natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids to navigation, information on tides and Current...
. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional magnetic compass. Today the use and idea of a compass rose is found on or featured in almost all navigation systems, including nautical chart

Nautical chart

Non-directional beacon

A Non-directional beacon is a radio transmitter at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. As the name implies, the signal transmitted does not include inherent directional information, in contrast to other navigational aids such as VHF omnidirectional range and TACAN....
and VOR

VHF omnidirectional range

VOR, short for VHF Omni-directional Radio Range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier in morse code , and data that allows the airborne receiving equipment to derive a Bearing #Types of bearings from the station to the aircraft...
systems, some GPS sets and similar.

Although a compass rose may sometimes be called a wind rose
Wind rose

A wind rose is a graphic tool used by meteorologists to give a succinct view of how wind speed and direction are typically distributed at a particular location....
, it should not be confused with the graphic tool used by meteorologists to depict wind frequencies from different directions at a location.

History
Naming all 32 points on the rose is called boxing the compass

Boxing the compass

Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two principal points of the compass in clockwise and counterclockwise order. It was also used in naval slang as a description of a ship slowly revolving in a calm sea in a "directionless" manner, thus pointing through all of the compass points, sometimes reversing itself....
.

The "rose" term arises from the fairly ornate figures used with early compass

Compass

A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's magnetic poles....
es.

Discussion

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Encyclopedia

Cardinal direction

Map

A map is a visual representation of an area?a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as Object , regions, and topic-comment....
or nautical chart

Nautical chart

Non-directional beacon

VHF omnidirectional range

History

Naming all 32 points on the rose is called boxing the compass

Boxing the compass

Compass

A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's magnetic poles....
es. A fleur-de-lis

Fleur-de-lis

The fleur-de-lis is a stylized design of either an Iris or a Lilium that is now used purely decoratively as well as symbolically, or it may be "at one and the same time political, dynasty, artistic, emblematic and symbolic", especially in heraldry....
figure, evolved from the initial T in the north wind's name Tramontane
Tramontane

Tramontane is a classical name for a northern wind. The exact form of the name and precise direction varies from country to country. The word came to English from Italian tramontana, which developed from Latin transmontanus , "beyond the mountains/across the mountains", referring to the alps in the North of Italy....
, is sometimes used to indicate the north direction. Similarly, on old maps the east was marked with an L for Levante, or with a + indicating the direction of Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
from the point of view of western Europe's countries.

Early roses were depicted with 12 points at 30° each, as was favored by the Romans. In the Middle Ages map makers moved to the 16-point rose complaining that sailors did not have the education to understand the previous design. The 16-point rose has the uncomfortable number of 22 1/2° between points, but is easily found by halving divisions and may have been easier for those not using a 360° circle. Using gradians

Grad (angle)

The grad is a unit of plane angle, equivalent to of a full circle, dividing a right angle in 100. It is also known as gon, grade, or gradian ....
, the sixteen-point rose will have exactly twenty-five gradians per point in.

A Rose of the Winds is an ancient version of a compass rose which personified compass directions as winds with individual names, such as the west wind Zephyrus and the east wind Eurus. A fountain in Taranto

Taranto

Taranto is a coastal city in Puglia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
was inspired by and named after the Rose of the Winds.

The earliest 32-point compass rose was developed by Arab navigators

Islamic geography

Islamic geography includes the advancement of geography, cartography and earth sciences under various Islamic civilizations. During the medieval ages, Islamic geography was driven by a number of factors: the Islamic Golden Age, parallel development of Islamic astronomy, translation of ancient texts into Arabic, increased travel due to comm...
during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
.

Modern depictions

The contemporary compass rose appears as two rings, one smaller and set inside the other. The outside ring denotes true cardinal direction

Cardinal direction

The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are north, south, east, and west, commonly denoted by their initials - N, S, E, W. They are mostly used for geography orientation on Earth but may be calculated anywhere on a rotating astronomical object....
s while the smaller inside ring denotes magnetic cardinal directions. True north
True north

True north is the direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole.True north usually differs from magnetic north pole and grid north ....
refers to the geographical location of the north pole

North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets the Earth's surface....
while magnetic north refers to the direction towards which the north pole of a magnetic object (as found in a compass

Compass

A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's magnetic poles....
) will point. The angular difference between true and magnetic north is called variation, which varies depending on location. The angular difference between magnetic heading and compass heading is called deviation

Magnetic deviation

Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by local magnetic fields, which must be allowed for, along with magnetic declination, if accurate bearings are to be calculated....
which varies by vessel and its heading.

Pedro Reinel

Pedro Reinel

Pedro Reinel was a Portuguese cartographer of the 16th century, author of the oldest signed Portuguese nautical chart . That is a portolan type of chart, covering western Europe and part of Africa, and already reflecting the explorations made by Diogo C?o in 1482-1485....
was the first person to draw a standard compass rose.

In popular media

HMS Compass Rose is the name of a fictional Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British Armed Forces . From the mid-18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early 1940s....
corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, manoeuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a offshore patrol vessel, although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role....
in the novel The Cruel Sea.

In the interactive fiction

Interactive fiction

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes Computer software simulating environments in which players use text Command to control Player character and influence the environment....
game, Beyond Zork

Beyond Zork

Beyond Zork was an interactive fiction computer game written by Brian Moriarty and released by Infocom in 1987. It was one of the last games in Infocom's Zork series; or, rather, one of the last Zork games that many Infocom fans consider "official" ....
, a compass rose is a flower that can control the direction of the wind.

The Compass Rose is the name of a significant tavern in Mercedes Lackey

Mercedes Lackey

Mercedes "Misty" Lackey is a prolific United States author of Fantasy literature. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Velgarth#Valdemar....
's Valdemar

Velgarth

Velgarth is a fictional continent, set on an as-yet-unnamed planet, created by author Mercedes Lackey, and is the setting for all novels thus far published in the Valdemar Saga, so-named as most novels in some way pertain to, take place in or otherwise involve that country....
fantasy novels.

An 8-point compass rose is a prominent feature in the logo of the Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball based in Seattle, Washington. Enfranchised in , the Mariners are a member of the American League West of Major League Baseball's American League....
Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1903 ....
club.

Gallery

External links

- An example of a rose with 26 directions.
- an example of a 32-point rose with cross for east (the Christian Holy Land) and fleur-di-lis for north.