Calculate the initial bearing, azimuth, compass direction, and back bearing between two GPS coordinates. This bearing calculator is useful for hiking, backpacking, navigation, route planning, mapping, and waypoint travel.
Starting coordinate:
Enter the latitude and longitude of your current location, trailhead, campsite, or first waypoint.
Destination coordinate:
Enter the latitude and longitude of the point you want to travel toward.
Declination:
Use magnetic declination if you want to convert a true bearing into a magnetic compass bearing.
A bearing azimuth calculator helps find the direction from one GPS coordinate to another. It can be useful for hiking navigation, map reading, waypoint travel, geocaching, field work, route planning, and emergency location planning.
For real navigation, compare the result with a map, compass, GPS device, and local conditions before traveling off trail.
The initial bearing formula estimates the direction from the starting coordinate to the destination coordinate:
θ = atan2(sin Δλ × cos φ2, cos φ1 × sin φ2 − sin φ1 × cos φ2 × cos Δλ)
A bearing is the direction from one point to another, usually measured in degrees clockwise from north.
An azimuth is a direction angle from 0° to 360°, measured clockwise from north. In many navigation uses, azimuth and bearing are closely related.
A back bearing is the opposite direction of travel. It points from the destination back toward the starting location.
Magnetic declination is the angle difference between true north and magnetic north. It can be added or subtracted when converting between map bearings and compass bearings.