Declination on plats

old school....

Never have in my 35 years surveying.
These days nobody uses a compass, it's all hand held GPS.

I wonder how the protracting attorney would have dealt with one of your plats:-S

Declination on plats>VERN

LOL, he would call every year to get the plat updated!

I still use a compass in the field on a regular basis. How do you other surveyors retrace boundaries if not using compass? Do you precalc all your geodetic positions before going afield and then use GPS?

Declination: +1º from survey plat border.

(For the lawyers and their associates 😉 )

I'll use a compass for hiking, or for running a rough line that needs to be cut out for topo.

As for surveying aspects, the bearings and distances reference angles that I am interested in, and then there are the monuments. I base everything on existing monuments, abutters deeds, and plans of record.

But, this is MA< and it is heavily developed, with lots of available monuments. I wouldn't use a compass for running boundaries due to so many influences beyond the magnetic north pole interfering with the compass.

I use gps frequently but usually after I have run the boundary, or if I am just doing a topo survey.

Dtp

foggy

I don't think one would include the declination for 'you'; if you added the magnetic declination, don't you think it would be for the client or someone using your plat?

(Not arguing to add it per se, as I don't put on a mag. decl., but that is why I would do it if I did.)

foggy>Tom

The problem here is that the declination wouldn't have any meaning with the bearings for most of the work in MA. They simply represent an angular relationship and not a reliable north determination.

Frequently we won't even know the true basis of bearings when retracing a plan from a hundred years ago, or more.
We have subtle hints such as a full north arrow or a half north arrow. That used to mean something in the past, but not any longer. More often than not there isn't a magnetic north bearing, or at least it's not labeled as such.

If I understand your question correctly, the declination would be for a property owner to use my bearings to hopefully locate the monuments at their corners? I would educate the owner in the use of their compass to replicate the angle 🙂

Now I try and use a true north bearing system, based on MA State Plane Coords, currently 2009 epoch but switching to 2011 soon.

Dtp

> Do you show declination on your plats? I was updating my declination yet again ( it has went from 21° to 16°30” since I have been here) and I noticed no other surveyors in my area are including this info on plats. Is this old school?

I have several times over the years. Some of the more knowledgeable clients request it for filing certain plats with the feds and in some areas it is standard practice left over from the compass days.

B-)

Sometimes, but not very often.

In many of the areas in which I work, declination can (and often does) vary several degrees (or MORE), across even a small parcel (20 acres or so). Unless I have a compelling reason to confuse folks with that data, I generally keep it to myself (assuming that I have even collected it in the first place).

There is a time and a place for this kind of detail (certain retracement scenarios), but I have found that most folks get a "deer in the headlights" look when they see it.

Loyal

I think I did that for some compass rose drawings. I'd have to go look them up, haven't been asked to lay one out in quite a while.

State of Alaska DNR requires the declination, date and source on all north arrows on their plats. I once asked a plat reviewer how that would benefit someone if I was using State Plane bearings. The reply sounded something like the sound of crickets chirping.

This thread piqued my curiosity so I checked the last batch of plans recorded around here over the past couple of months. The majority are oriented to magnetic north with grid and "true" gradually gaining favor (as old timers gradually acquire GPS equipment). I only saw one (one of mine) that states the declination with numbers.

I decline such action. Does putting those two words together make declination?

From a drawing I'm working on right now for the State.

I use a compass regularly when retracing large boundaries here in WV. I show the declination on the north arrow on my plat.

> Do you show declination on your plats? I was updating my declination yet again ( it has went from 21° to 16°30” since I have been here) and I noticed no other surveyors in my area are including this info on plats. Is this old school?

Not unless I'm running compass lines and since I never run compass lines, I don't. I DO show angles of convergence for grid to geodetic though.