sextant

noun

sex·tant ˈsek-stənt

: an instrument for measuring angular distances used especially in navigation to observe altitudes of celestial bodies (as in ascertaining latitude and longitude)

Examples of sextant in a Sentence

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Though his crew has access to GPS data, satellite internet and radar, the captain still makes use brass compasses, sextants and the ship’s great wheel. —

Joe Sills, Forbes, 19 Jan. 2025 Black Spy stares at the moon through an elaborate sextant, adjusting various settings and making mental calculations, finally drawing an X on the ground with a compass before setting the bucket down. —

Gyasi Hall, Longreads, 12 Sep. 2023 But otherwise, the astronauts’ situation was similar enough to that of Earthly sailors to use similar technology, which means instead of a marine sextant, astronauts used a space sextant. —

Amy Shira Teitel, Discover Magazine, 15 June 2019 The sextant used by the captain of the rescue ship Carpathia sold for just under $97,000 in 2016. —

James Rogers, Fox News, 1 Nov. 2020 See all Example Sentences for sextant