Blog Posts

2013-06-20

Handmade Sextant

If you want to make a sextant, you will need a piece of cardboard, a plastic straw, a paper clip, string ( about 4 inches long ), a small weight ( you can use a washer or a fishing weight ), scotch tape, protractor, pencil, and scissors. You will need to start with the piece of cardboard and protractor. Draw lines 1/2 inch  from the edge of the cardboard.
 
Place the protractor and mark the angles, from 0 to 90 degrees on the cardboard.

Label the degrees in ten units ( 10, 20, 30, 40 ).  Make smaller marks in between the ten marks to represent the units of five.  Cut off the extra part of the paper with the scissors. Punch a hole where the 0 degree and 90 degree lines meet, and thread the string through.  Tie the string to the paper clip to keep the string from slipping back through the hole.  Then, tie the other end of the string to the weight.  After you've done that you tape the straw to the top of the paper.  When you sight the north star through the straw the string will tell you the degree of latitude of you location. 

Source : http://library.thinkquest.org/6169/sextant.htm