Bryn Athyn Students undertake Celestial Navigation in Fairmount Park

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This February, a group of Bryn Athyn College students used the techniques of celestial navigation to fix the position of the monument to Mr. Thomas Godfrey (1704–1749) in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Fairmount Park. Godfrey was the inventor of the sextant and a pioneer of celestial navigation methods.

According to the National Maritime Museum in Great Britain (www.nmm.ac.uk), "celestial navigation is the art of locating one's position by reference to the stars and planets." Celestial navigation was used before the advent of modern systems, when sailors had no land or other objects to use as fixed reference points.

Mr. Thomas Godfrey was a celebrated glazer and self-taught mathematician, who distinguished himself as an inventor of the octant (which later developed into the sextant). Godfrey's role in celestial navigation was played down after he was falsely accused of stealing credit for the octant design, but thanks to interventions by Benjamin Franklin, Godfrey was credited with the invention and was awarded a prize by the Longitude Commission, Britain.

As a contemporary and a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and a noted member of Franklin’s 'junta', Godfrey was an influential thinker in his time. He was involved in mapping the Delaware River estuary, which ensured a leading role of the Philadelphia sea port for the next 150 years. Octants and later sextants based on his design were successfully deployed in the United States Navy.

Bryn Athyn students made observations of the sun using traditional sextants to celebrate the 260 years since the death of the inventor and the first release of the design of octants to the public.