Chapter 3

READING A SEXTANT

Introduction
Sextant may have gone out of use on your ships due to the existence of
GPS and other electronic aids but it is still the last resort if every thing
fails when in the middle of any open waters
The sextant

Development of the Sextant

The double-reflecting instrument (one that uses two mirrors to bring the
celestial body down to the horizon; hence the navigator no longer has to
try to look two places at once) was apparently invented by Sir Isaac
Newton in 1699, though it was London mathematician John Hadley who
got the credit for first producing one in 1731. To complicate matters,
American inventor Thomas Godfrey built one in 1730, but was not
acknowledged by the Royal Society.
Hadley's second instrument had an arc of 1/8 of a circle and hence was
called an octant; the sextant is 1/6 of a circle. Here is Bruce Bauer's
definition: "A sextant is, in essence, a machine for varying the angle
between two mirrors by precisely measurable numbers of degrees to
utilize the phenomenon that the angle of the departing light ray will have
been changed by double the angle between the mirrors."

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How a Sextant Works

There's nothing mystical or complicated about a sextant. It is a device

that measures the angle between two objects.
The sextant makes use of two mirrors. With this sextant, one of the
mirrors (mirror A in the diagram) is half-silvered, which allows some light
to pass through. In navigating, you look at the horizon through this
mirror.

The other mirror (mirror B in the diagram) is attached to a movable arm.

Light from an object, let's say the sun, reflects off this mirror. The arm
can be moved to a position where the sun's reflection off the mirror also

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reflects off mirror A and through the eyepiece. What you see when this
happens is one object (the sun) superimposed on the other (the
horizon). The angle between the two objects is then read off the scale.
What makes a sextant so useful in navigation is its accuracy. It can
measure an angle with precision to the nearest ten seconds. (A degree
is divided into 60 minutes; a minute is divided into 60 seconds.)
If the weather is reasonable when you are at sea, you will be able to
see the horizon line clearly and directly under the sun. An observation
of the sun using a sextant must use a dark filter in place between the
top mirror and the horizon mirror. Without these shades you will blind
yourself by looking at the sun especially through a telescope.
Stand facing the sun with the sextant held vertically in your right hand.
Clamp the movable index arm at “zero” and point the telescope towards
the sun. Look through the telescope until you see the sun through the
horizon mirror and the glass. Once you see the image of the sun in the
horizon mirror (it will look like a red circle through the dark filter), press
and unlock the arm clamp and manipulate the angle of the sextant as a
whole, and the angle of the arm, so that you can pull the image of the
sun down. Pull the sun down to where, you can see the horizon through
the horizon glass and the suns image through the horizon mirror.
Holding the sextant exactly vertical and steady, by moving its arm, bring
the sun's image so that it’s lower limb (usually) or upper limb just
touches the line of the horizon. Lock the clamp on the arm and make
fine adjustment with the help of a micrometer screw to keep the lower
limb of the sun skimming the horizon. You will need to do this
continuously as the sun is continuously rising or setting. To determine
whether you are holding the sextant exactly vertical and obtaining the
correct altitude, rock it slightly. This is called swinging the sextant. You
will see the image of the sun rise a little on each side of a low point
which is touching the horizon. When the sun is at the lowest point and
touching the horizon, you are holding the sextant exactly vertical. That
is the sextant altitude of the sun’s lower limb at that instant. Call for the
time keeper to record the time. Recording the time is essential to work
the celestial observations.
Read the point where the engraved zero mark of the arm crosses the
scale of degrees on the arc of the sextant.

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The engraved zero mark of the arm may not be exactly aligned to any
particular degree mark on the arc, but may be at a position between two
degree marks on the arc. The degree mark to the right is read as the
whole degree mark and the fractions in minutes can be read from the
micrometer drum scales. See above figure for details.