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I’ve been researching Space Sextants the last couple of days and came across Frank Reed’s excellent summary http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Space-sextants-FrankReed-oct-2010-g14170 .  That’s covered as much as I need to know about sextant use in the Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab Programmes, but it leaves me with three new things to worry about, two to do with celestial in deep space, and one which I’ll enquire separately about.  My queries are:

Frank you said “While the basic principles of celestial navigation can continue to be applied to space navigation and have been on at least one unmanned deep space probe".   Please can someone tell me which unmanned probe and provide any updates since 2010?

Frank also said "A digital camera beats a sextant in space any day".  Please can someone explain to someone not particularly clued up on the inners of a digital camera or lens optics how a digital camera can be used for celestial navigation?  Also can this be done in real time or almost real time?  DaveP