Sextant Lab

Notes and small experiments on celestial navigation.

Before satellites, a navigator found their position with a sextant, an accurate clock and a book of tables: measure the angle between a star and the horizon, note the exact time, and reduce the sight to a line on the chart. This site collects my notes while re-learning that craft โ€” mostly the arithmetic, a little of the history, and the occasional night spent waiting for clouds to clear.

Notes

Small tools