Word: sextant
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With long-range navigational aids (LORAN), ships at sea can plot their locations to within one nautical mile. Under clear skies on a calm ocean, a good navigator can take an equally accurate fix with a sextant. But nothing does the job as well as the Navy's all-weather Transit satellite navigational system, which can pinpoint a ship's position to about 300 ft. Until now, Transit has been classified because it guides the Polaris missile submarine fleet, but last week the Government released it for use by any U.S. merchant ship...
...their second rendezvous, the astronauts maneuvered to a point 13 miles below and behind the ATDA, then again effortlessly closed the gap, using only an on-board computer and a handheld sextant. Next, to simulate an emergency rendezvous during the actual Apollo moon flight, they moved Gemini eight miles above and 86 miles ahead of the ATDA, then attempted to close in again with the aid of ground controllers. This time they ran into trouble-losing sight of the ATDA against the confusing background of the earth below, consuming eleven hours and 30 extra pounds of fuel before accomplishing...
Uncomfortable as they were, Borman and Lovell found time in between their duties for medicine to make contributions to other sciences. By using a hand-held sextant to sight stars setting on the earth's horizon, they were able to determine their position in space and demonstrate that astronauts can navigate without the aid of a computer. In an experiment for the Defense Department, they tracked the payload of a Minuteman missile, took infra-red measurements of the plasma sheath of ionized air that was created when it plunged back into the atmosphere below them. Another experiment, communication with...
...supported by hidden microphones. It can also be candid if it is simply turned on and left running until the people who are being photographed get bored and go about their business as if the camera were not there. This technique has been used by Manhattan's Sextant Inc. to make one of the most expensive and unusual documentary TV shows ever done. It is called Inside the Movie Kingdom-1964 and is scheduled to be broadcast this week on NBC (Friday, March 20, 9:30-11 E.S.T...
...Sextant's six crews spent six months attaching themselves to one motion picture production unit after another and hanging on like lampreys, shooting miles of film in close study of directors and stars practicing their trade. The cameras were soon recording an insider's view. Watching Swiss Director Bernhard Wicki at work in Rome on The Visit is like watching a big, half-mad sheep dog forever nipping at the flock, loping in circles, barking "Go home!" at people in his way. Ingrid Bergman is every inch an actress as she sits in a makeup chair and tells...