The instrument
The sextant is the primary instrument of celestial navigation, once used to find a ship’s position at sea by the stars alone. It measures the height of a star above the horizon. Reading it well took a careful eye and no small amount of patience.
The meridian passage
Once a day, a star reaches the top of its arc as it crosses the meridian, the north-south line directly overhead. Track its climb with the sextant, and the instant it stops rising is the meridian passage.
A single careful observation, taken at that very moment, tells you where you are.
Why it matters
GPS has transformed navigation, but the practice was never really about the technology. It was about knowing exactly where you stand before setting a course for where you want to go.
That is our work: a clear fix on what you own, what you need, where you’re headed, and what’s possible.
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