[news]

Sounds like it is changing. Does this mean eventually I will have to hold my gps upside down for it to work right?

[sewn]

I guess they would have to reprint all the compasses too.

[Mike E.]

I knew that something was happening. When I was younger I always landed on my feet after a fall. Now I seem to land on my head more often than not. Must be a magnetic pole reversal.

[Dale]

Reminds me of that the compass I took(over forty years ago) from Boulder, Colorado to Ellsworth Station, Antarctica did not work well on the ice. Partly because the magnetic field is into(or out of) the earth in the northern hemisphere but out of(or into) the earth in the southern hemisphere. So the balancing weight was on the wrong arm(south pole seeking arm instead of north pole seeking arm, as I remember) and the needle dug into the compass face instead of swinging freely. It worked better if I tilted the entire compass but I could not tilt it enough. Of course there are other problems caused by being close to the geographic pole, and the magnetic dip pole, and the geomagnetic pole, and the...

[polarbear-]

Dale, were you doing research at Ellsworth Station? Any photos?

[Dale]

I spend 13 months at Ellsworth Station(floating ice shelf), returned home to spend all my earnings on a brand new bright red MGA, road trip to Alaska, etc. then returned to Byrd Station(80 degrees south on the polar plateau) for 15 months. Some info at http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/arvweb/polar/oralhist/interviews/reed.htm I have about a thousand 35mm Kodachrome "snapshots" taken with a folding Retina IIIc and a IIIC. Most of the photos are still beautiful when projected on a screen. I have a scanner now. What would you like to see? Most of my penguin photos are green and faded because I was shooting Anscochrome at that time and I guess the film was damaged when it got too warm crossing the equator.

[polarbear-]