What is Angle of Declination?
The angle of declination is the angle between the Magnetic North Pole and the Geographical North Pole of the Earth. In other words, Angle of Declination is also known as magnetic declination.
Our earth has two magnetic poles, the Magnetic North Pole and the Magnetic South Pole. The Magnetic North Pole is the direction where the magnetized compass needle points towards the north direction and the Magnetic South Pole is where the magnetized compass needle points towards the south pole. The maps are drawn with the respect of magnetic north.
Our earth has two geographical poles as well, Geographical North Pole and Geographical South Pole. It is placed on the Earth surface where the Earth’s imaginary spin axis passes through.
Magnetic declination varies from place to place, as the change of the earth’s magnetic field or the earth’s magnetism.
The discrepancy between the Magnetic North Pole and Geographical North Pole makes very difficult to find the right direction due to the angle of declination.
According to the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, the Magnetic North Pole and Geographical North Pole (True North) will be lined up for the first time in the last 360 years.
In this video, we have described how the magnetic north and geographical north are different and how it is important for us to know the difference.
