Sextant

Gift of William Nesser, 2012.015.043

Mariners used sextants to determine the altitude of the sun at noon, which gave the sailor his latitude above the equator. Sextants were also used to measure the angles of stars above the horizon at night, which were used to determine a ship's position on the ocean. Despite the many technical advances of World War II, navigating a ship on the ocean was done in much the same way as it had been for centuries.