Sextant
A simple step-by-step introduction to using a sextant for navigational purposes.
With the advent of satellite navigation and the global positioning system, as well as the ever increasing affordability of the electronic devices needed, some people think that the art of astronavigation is slowly dying. But this isn't true at all!
There is an atavistic pleasure -not only for sailors- in being able to work out one's position by using the traditional sextant, the Nautical Almanac and a chronometer. Movies often show the captain of a ship 'shooting the sun' with a sextant and returning to the nautical chart where he is calculating something we don't understand. A short time after that he knows the exact position of his vessel.