An apparatus for determining the direction of a magnetic field is provided with a plurality of magnetically sensitive components arranged with their sensing axes equally spaced around a circular configuration. Each magnetically sensitive component is capable of providing a binary signal representing the resolution of the direction of a magnetic field along one of the two possible directions aligned with its sensing axis. The binary signals from each of the plurality of magnetically sensitive components is arranged to provide a grey code output that can be used to directly determine the direction that the apparatus is pointing toward. The compass points that can be resolved is related to the number of magnetically sensitive components by a ratio of two to one. For example, the use of four magnetically sensitive components permits the resolution of eight compass directions.