Thanks for using this online dictionary, we have been helping millions of people improve their use of the english language with its free online services. English definition of sextant is as below...

Divide :: Divide (v. t.) To mark divisions on; to graduate; as, to divide a sextant..

Forestaff :: Forestaff (n.) An instrument formerly used at sea for taking the altitudes of heavenly bodies, now superseded by the sextant; -- called also cross-staff..

Altimeter :: Altimeter (n.) An instrument for taking altitudes, as a quadrant, sextant, etc..

Macrometer :: Macrometer (n.) An instrument for determining the size or distance of inaccessible objects by means of two reflectors on a common sextant.

Sextant :: Sextant (n.) The constellation Sextans.

Sextant :: Sextant (n.) The sixth part of a circle.

Sextans :: Sextans (n.) A constellation on the equator south of Leo; the Sextant.

Observation :: Observation (n.) Specifically, the act of measuring, with suitable instruments, some magnitude, as the time of an occultation, with a clock; the right ascension of a star, with a transit instrument and clock; the sun's altitude, or the distance of the moon from a star, with a sextant; the temperature, with a thermometer, etc..

Octant :: Octant (n.) An instrument for measuring angles (generally called a quadrant), having an arc which measures up to 9O¡, but being itself the eighth part of a circle. Cf. Sextant..

Radius :: Radius (n.) The movable limb of a sextant or other angular instrument.

Sextant :: Sextant (n.) An instrument for measuring angular distances between objects, -- used esp. at sea, for ascertaining the latitude and longitude. It is constructed on the same optical principle as Hadley's quadrant, but usually of metal, with a nicer graduation, telescopic sight, and its arc the sixth, and sometimes the third, part of a circle. See Quadrant..

Backstaff :: Backstaff (n.) An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed..

Vernier :: Vernier (n.) A short scale made to slide along the divisions of a graduated instrument, as the limb of a sextant, or the scale of a barometer, for indicating parts of divisions. It is so graduated that a certain convenient number of its divisions are just equal to a certain number, either one less or one more, of the divisions of the instrument, so that parts of a division are determined by observing what line on the vernier coincides with a line on the instrument..

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