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The Sextant

Sextant

Producer: 
AstroMedia
Design: 
Klaus Hünig
Material: 
Die-cut cardboard with gold print and protective lacquer
Weight: 
100g
Product: 
A fully functioning instrument for measuring the height of sun and stars. Useful accessory: an artificial horizon.
Price:
19,90 € incl. VAT
 
available from stock

Product-Variations and Add-ons
Artificial horizon

  • Shipping costs included in Germany, EU and Switzerland on any order of 100 Euro or above
  • Low price shipping outside the EU by registered letter
  • 2 weeks statutory right of return (customised products excluded)
  • Hotline: +49-611-185 11 06

Description

This instrument revolutionised navigation because it was now possible to take readings of, for example, the height of the Sun with unsurpassed accuracy and speed. In connection with John Harrison’s invention, the chronometer, the art of navigation reached heights of development never known before and one can say confidently without exaggeration, that these two inventions were the most important prerequisites for the spreading world wide of the British Empire.

The principle is ingenious and at the same time amazingly simple: A rotating mirror makes it possible to bring the images of the point to be measured and of the horizon or another point of reference to coincide, and the angle of the distance between the two is simply read on a scale. It is hardly surprising that the sextant was often the most precious possession of a seaman and that it is, even today, along with the anchor and the compass the most famous nautical symbol.

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