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The sextant was the chief navigational tool for maritime transport for two centuries. It is an ingenious device for finding one's position on the sea by measuring the angle of a celestial body above a horizontal line of reference. The measurement of the angle and the elapsed time is used to chart a position line on a nautical chart. For the entire history of ocean travel, mariners have needed an accurate method to locate their positions by the only constant observable to them--the stars. With advances in maritime science, navigators began using some kind of astronomical instrument to map their positions according to the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. The sextant developed from and improved upon these astronomical instruments.

Over the course of history, marine navigators have variously used latitude hooks, kamals, astrolabes, balestillas, cross-staffs, back-staffs, nocturnals, and quadrants for this purpose. Similar to the principles that led him to invent the reflecting telescope, Sir Isaac Newton had already suggested the idea of making use of moving mirrors as reflecting instruments. Newton's idea of doubly reflecting mirrors allows for subtracting the motion of the sextant from the reflection. The eighteenth century octant was the direct forerunner of the sextant. John Hadley and Thomas Godfrey had independently developed effective marine octants around 1731, both employing double-reflecting mirrors. John Campbell's modifications transformed the octant into the most successful ocular instrument in the history of marine navigation--the sextant.

The name "sextant" is derived from the Latin sextus, or sixth part of a circle. Prototypes of the instrument had been used by astronomers since the sixteenth century. The famous astronomer and compiler of celestial data Tycho Brahe had developed a forerunner of the sextant, but it was with Campbell that the nautical sextant took final shape. The sextant enables sailors to calculate their longitudinal and latitudinal position based on precise measurements of the angles of celestial objects. The sextant also makes use of the innovation of the double-reflecting mirrors. The sextant combines two mirrors or prisms, a telescopic sighting tube, an arc scale, and a shaded micrometer.

The observer adjusts the components to measure the angle of a celestial object--the Moon, Sun, planet, or star--compared to the horizon. With the measurement calculated by a time frame, it is possible to achieve highly accurate readings of the latitude and longitude based on the perceived movement of the celestial object. The sextant was often used with the chronometer, a precision time-measuring device. Compared with its predecessors, the sextant was sturdy, lightweight, portable, and extremely accurate, even on a moving ship. With its invention, mariners had the ideal tool for charting their positions. Even with the increasing use of electronic locating devices, the sextant remains an important navigational tool...

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