Artificial Horizon

Practice navigation without having to go to sea!

The Davis Artificial Horizon is a device for taking sun or moon shots with the sextant without observing the natural or sea horizon.
This instrument is particularly useful to students of celestial navigation, and also to experienced navigators who wish to practice taking accurate shots without having to go to a large body of water.
With this device, observations can even be made outside or through a window of your home.

Answers the need of every sextant user who cannot depend on a natural sea horizon.
Use for backyard practice, finding exact positon when inland, and making exact sextant shots on foggy mornings.

• Great for backyard practice
• To use, fill with water and read the angle of the reflected sun with your sextant; half your sextant reading is the sun's angle above the true horizon
• Corrosion resistant
• The reflecting surface is completely shielded to protect the surface of the liquid from the wind
• Comes with two sun shades, a lid and full directions
• Compact: 6" x 4" x 1-1/2"


Artificial horizons were traditionally used by sailors of sailing ships when they were becalmed. Becalming was frequently accompanied by fog which obscured the natural horizon. The device at sea only because the ship was essentially motionless.

Today, artificial horizons are used by those wanting to use or practice celestial navigation inland. There are two kinds of artificial horizons –
A) a bubble attachment for the sextant, which allows the sextant to be used in a normal manner (i.e. not pointed at the ground).
B) a flat artificial horizon like this Davis model. The flat artificial horizon has two drawbacks compared to bubble models – it is difficult to use with stars, and actual altitudes are limited to about 60° (half the range of the sextant). This makes a natural horizon preferential to using a flat artificial one in some circumstances.