A Freiberger drum sextant, manufactured in 1984 in what was then East Germany was used. The nautical sextant allows an observer to align the images of sun and horizon, and measure the angle between them. A measurement of the sun’s altitude (H) above the horizon al local noon. The devices used in this case to obtain this information are shown in Figure 1.ġ. This determination required three equally essential pieces of information. The boardwalk in Belmar, New Jersey, provided a very convenient “deck” from which to observe the sun and the horizon on Saturday, November 16, 2019, a sunny and blustery day. As this was my first such measurement, I opted to carry it out on from a stationary position on dry land rather than aboard a moving vessel (the fact that I do not own a yacht also played a role in that decision).
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These measurements are, in a way, a type of astrometry, the earliest form of astronomy. The objective of this short article is to describe an attempt to determine local latitude and longitude by an observation of the noon sun, and its elegant theoretical background. The course was taught by Frank Reed, the navigation instructor who currently teaches all navigation classes offered by the Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut, a maritime museum well worth visiting. On June 2019, a group of AAAP members met in Peyton Hall to attend a two-day celestial navigation course, which I found most enjoyable.