Posted 8 years ago
Dallibone
(101 items)
This awesome contraption does not have any marks or signatures so I am unsure if it's a sexton. The front of the box is really cool. Does anyone know about this instrument
Vintage Maritime Sexton Longtitude & Lattitude Compass | ||
| Tools and Hardware5466 of 10103 |  |  |
It's called a sextant. Old ones are HIGHLY collectable in the Steampunk world!
Put it in the Tools or Maritime category,too. There should be a mark on it somewhere. Gently clean it up and look. You can google Sextant and learn all about them.
OK, OK, you've woken me up. These will give latitude but not longitude. I learned a bit by doing noon sightings at sea level. Sighting on the horizon, I had to get the sun in the filtered mirror & turn something until it brought the image of the sun to the horizon. (I think!). Then you take the degree reading (angle of the dangle) & somehow I came up with the latitude. On the little island I lived on at the time, it was believed that our beach would come & go. I explained to the locals that my quadrant proved that, in fact, it was the island that was moving as much as 4 nautical miles E & W. Later I found out how important it was to keep the instrument perfectly perpendicular while doing readings, but alas, the locals still think they are on a moving island. Now, do I sound like somebody you want instructions from ?