On a sunny day (Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:53:32 GMT) it happened Jan Panteltje
wrote in :

On a sunny day (Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:16:10 -0600) it happened "harmony"
wrote in JEGsf.18041$Ou3.7306@dukeread09:

is there some kind of compass available for space traveller? how would the
future astronauts stop from getting lost once they venture out of earth's
orbit?


From a philosophical point of view, we have no clue where we the earth, the
solar system, the milky way and the whole universe is, so.. to find your way
back to earth from close bye, the simplest is to tune into one of the many
radio or TV stations....
Simple dipole directional antenna should work even when you can no longer see
earth.
We have been 'radioing' for many decades now, so from 50 light years away it
should be no problem receiving nice old TV movies.

I dunno how many giga watt noise earth is putting out these days that makes
it through the atmosphere, but likely any decent short wave radio is all you
ever need, as we can hardy leave the solar system even with unmanned
spacecraft at this moment.
El Pante

Actually it also makes it possible to see how far you are away if you have an
accurate synced watch, substract TV station time from watch time,
use 300000 km /s.
(And do not get fooled by GMT CET etc..).