Sextant vs Astrolabe - What's the difference?
sextant | astrolabe |
(nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
(geometry) One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.
An astronomical and navigational instrument for gauging the altitude of the Sun and stars.
As nouns the difference between sextant and astrolabe
is that sextant is a navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude while astrolabe is an astronomical and navigational instrument for gauging the altitude of the Sun and stars.As a proper noun Sextant
is the constellation Sextans.sextant
English
Noun
(en noun)- For several days things went along in about the same course. I took our position every morning with my crude sextant ; but the results were always most unsatisfactory. They always showed a considerable westing when I knew that we had been sailing due north. I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on.
