The magnetic north pole is on the move, drifting over an ever-expanding territory. Because compasses track north based on this magnetically dictated point, compass-users are beginning to wander off course by a degree or two. For people set on human-imposed standards of measurement, this becomes an occasion for alarm. But the magnetic north pole and the magnetosphere which creates it do not exist to guide our compasses. The magnetosphere protects us from solar wind--a task it fulfills even as it fluctuates.