co-ordinates

[etrexlegendhelp]

hi all i am trying to get my head round where i am on my etrex legend e.g
n 50 50 879
w 000 24.526 i dont know how i reference this to a map i have no understanding of co-ordinates whatsoever can someone point me in the direction of somewhere i could learn this without getting totally confused i only want it so if my handheld gives me a bearing i can then look at my location on a o.s 1:25000 scale map as a cross reference

many thanks

[mikealder]

This would appear from what you have posted as to be Degrees decimal minutes (D.M.M format) - there are different settings you can express the lat/ long format in decimal degrees, degrees decimal minutes or degrees, minutes, seconds.
If you are looking at an OS map in the UK then try and change it to OSGB format where you can use the reference supplied by the device on an OS map which equates to TQ 12117 06591 near "High Salvington" - Mike

[Andy_P]

There are 360 degrees round the Earth.
London (Greenwich) was defined as 0 degrees Longitude (that's the vetical lines east or west) and is at about 51 degrees Latutude, (the rings north (or south) of the equator).

Each degree can be divided up into smaller parts. One way of doing it is the normal decimal system so 51 and a half degrees north would be 51.5

The other way is like a clock. A degree is divided up into 60 minutes and each minute is divided up into 60 seconds. So 51 and a half degrees would be 51d 30' 00"

Places west of Greenwich would be described as W 20 degrees, for example and places South of the equator would be written as S 20 degrees or whatever; but another complication is that sometimes they they use a minus sign for places South or West instead.

There is no really simple way to convert these Lat/Long co-ordinates to the National Grid reference or any of the other map reference methods used, but there's a website I've used before that can do the conversions for you.
http://www.nearby.org.uk/coord-entry.html#irish_grid_reference

You could try Wikipaedia for a better explanation of it all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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