octant

IPA: ˈɑktʌnt

The eighth part of a circle; an arc of 45 degrees.
(astrology) The aspect of two planets that are 45°, or one-eighth of a circle, apart.
(geometry) The eighth part of a disc; a sector of 45 degrees; half a quadrant.
(nautical) An instrument for measuring angles, particularly of elevation.

Examples of "octant" in Sentences

Wesley found a packet of small iron tools, an octant and a massive spiked club.
It was in its octant, and showed a crescent finely traced on the dark background of the sky.
John Paul’s deliverance from the hardship of the lower deck was a brass instrument called an octant.
Curved an eighth of circle, hence “octant”, fixed with small mirrors and etched by degrees, an octant can tell a mariner the angle of the sun to the horizon at high noon.
Charred remains of the boat, a burned octant, and a few unexploded cartridges were all that remained of the meager outfit upon which they depended to take them to the mouth of the river, a distance of over 250 miles.
From a private collection, offerings include several important pairs of globes by Newton, a sextant by Ramsden, an octant by George Jones, equinoctial dials, astrolabes, chronometers, microscopes and nautical antiques.
Advances in the development of these instruments made such calculations easier and more precise, for example: the "course protractor", the "cuadrant", the "octant and the sextant", and the "longitude clock", which was a precision chronometer.