Qibla Direction in Paterson, New Jersey

How to face the Qibla in Paterson

1. With your phone: tap Open the live Qibla compass, allow location (and, on iPhone, motion access), then turn slowly until the Kaaba on the dial reaches the mark at the top.
2. With a regular compass: hold it flat, turn it until the needle sits on N, then face 70.8° on the dial. That is the magnetic bearing; reading 58.4° off a magnetic compass would leave you about 12.4° off.
3. With the map: open the live compass, switch to Map and follow the gold line from your position to the Kaaba. It does not use the compass at all.

If a phone compass looks wrong, move the phone in a figure-eight a few times, away from laptops, speakers, car dashboards and magnetic cases, and hold it flat while you turn.

Why the Qibla from Paterson points east-northeast

On a flat wall map, Makkah looks east-southeast of Paterson: a straight line drawn on a Mercator map points 101°. The earth is round, though, and the shortest path over its surface, a great circle, leaves Paterson at 58.4° and arcs north over the Atlantic, reaching about 50° N before it turns down toward Arabia. That shorter, curved route is why the Qibla here is east-northeast, about 43° to the left of the flat-map line.

Nearby cities

• Jersey City, NJ58.5° ENE · 15 mi away
• New York, NY58.5° ENE · 17 mi away
• Bronx, NY58.6° ENE · 17 mi away
• Brooklyn, NY58.5° ENE · 20 mi away
• Queens, NY58.6° ENE · 24 mi away

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