Easily Estimate Sunset With Your Hand

When in the wild, away from civilization knowing how long until dark can be a life saver. Sure you can look at a watch, but that requires you to know exactly when the official sunset is. That changes every day. It also does not take into account things such as trees and mountains blocking your theoretical horizon.

Well, there is a really easy method for letting you know how much daylight you have left. This method is simple, easy and most importantly accurate for most places. The only places it becomes less accurate is near the poles. And actually knowing when the sun sets there isn't as much of an issue because during the summers the sun will be traveling at such and angle that daylight isn't fully lost nearly as quickly.

For those of us that live in the continental USA or any place worldwide that is closer to the equator than Canada or Alaska, you can easily estimate how long until the sun sets using only your hand.

Simply extend your arm fully and count the number of hand widths between the sun and your apparent horizon. Exclude the thumb. Each hand width is about 1 hour of daylight left. This means that each finger represents 15 minutes.

Using this method you can easily calculate how much time you have to finish up your task. Or how much time you have to return home.

Cellphone batteries die quickly when you are out of range of cell towers or have only one bar. It is nice to know you have the knowledge to make educated decisions dealing with time, even when you do not have a working watch.