This is so cool; Mom and Dad just gave me a sextant! It's made by Cassens & Plath, and what I thought right off was that it looks pretty complicated. I'm good at math and at handling equipment though, so I think I'll be able to figure it out. I already tried some sightings. The reason it's called a sextant is that it's one-sixth of a circle, and you line it up with the horizon, to make sure it's level, then you take a sighting of a star. That gives you enough information to imagine a huge triangle, and if you know two angles you can calculate the third. The key is that you know exactly what time it is and what star you're looking at, and then you can triangulate your position. It might not be so easy when I'm standing on a moving deck instead of land. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment