NavList:

Brad,

Yes, you can put a sextant on a stand but then it is no longer a device to use on a ship to find your position.  As Frank said, seperate the use of the sextant or any angle mesering device into the use at sea and the use on land.  

Sextant stands were used on land when explorers, saliors or the like had a good sextant allready.  A good surveryors theodolite or a transit telescope did a much better job at fixing position on land but if you had spent years on a ship and wanted to set up a town then your handy sextant would work.  Explorers would routinely use a sextant and a bowl of mercury to fix their latitude and maby do a luner to find longitude but that was because sextants were small, easy to carry and accurate enought.  You could also use a pendulumn clock for time but not on a ship.

If you think of a sextant as a device to use on a ship then it is a hand held device.

John H.