Click image to animate the quadrant You are lost at sea on a small boat... You look in every direction but all you can see is the blank horizon. There is no land in sight to show you which direction you are travelling in, or if you are moving at all!

As night falls the sky fills with glittering stars. You know that the brightest star, the Pole Star, indicates north. If only you could measure the height of the Pole Star every night, you could work out your latitude - how far north or south you were drifting….

Then you remember. You rummage under some old sails and find the quadrant. Will you be able to use it to find your way safely back to land?

To make the quadrant you will need...

• Scissors
• Card
• Sellotape

• Glue
• String
• A bead

What to do...

Download and print out the instruction scrolls and the quadrant template, using the links below.

Test your quadrant by staying up late and measuring the heignt of the stars in the night sky. Or, if it is cloudy, practise measuring the height of the cut-out star on a wall.

High quality (PDFs)

• Instructions (261KB)
• Quadrant template (310KB)
• How to use your quadrant (285KB)

Low quality (JPEGs/HTML)

• Instructions (5KB)
• Quadrant template:
  - Part 1 (53KB)
  - Part 2 (21KB)
• How to use your quadrant (6KB)

Disclaimer

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