NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Sextant Terms
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2007 Oct 21, 11:51 -0600
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2007 Oct 21, 11:51 -0600
A sextant has an arc of 60 degrees; most (all?) sextants use the double reflecting principle to measure up to an angle of 120 degrees. A quintant has an arc of 72 degrees; these instruments can measure up to an angle of 144 degrees. It is my understanding that earlier instruments, which did not have the double reflecting principle, could only measure their arc's worth, so to speak. So a quadrant is 90 degrees; the instrument of the same name could only measure 90 degrees. An octant is only 45 degrees; these could only measure 45 degrees, but did not some octants use the double reflecting principle to measure 90 degrees? Dan --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
