NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Bob Bossert
Date: 2025 Nov 6, 07:36 -0800
Was the hardware for Maritime Sextants altitude measured (back in the 17 through 19 century) ALWAYS in degrees and minutes with interpolation (magnification or vernier) to .1 or .2 minutes?
Were Maritime Sextants altitude measurement ever made to be read in degrees - minutes - seconds? In Frank Reed's Age of Sail, he showed a Captain Bligh log entry that was degrees, minutes, seconds. Did he read a sextant in degrees-minutes-seconds or was his sextant in decimal minutes (magnification or vernier) and he computed seconds for the altitude measurement or bearings? Weren't charts (often or always) in degrees-minutes-seconds.
Were Bubble Sextants (used in Aircraft / Air ships) read in degrees, and the observer interpolated decimal degrees, or interpolated (magnification or vernier) minutes and decimal minutes like in today's maritime sextant?
