[throw0101d]

> […] for that to matter very much.

Life and death at times:

> The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 was the loss of four warships of a Royal Navy fleet off the Isles of Scilly in severe weather on 22 October 1707.[a] Between 1,400 and 2,000 sailors lost their lives aboard the wrecked vessels, making the incident one of the worst maritime disasters in British naval history.[2] The disaster has been attributed to a combination of factors, including the navigators' inability to accurately calculate their positions, errors in the available charts and pilot books, and inadequate compasses.[3]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scilly_naval_disaster_of_1707

When you're trying to find a tiny speck of an island (Pitcairn, Saint Helena, etc) in the middle of an ocean it's also important.

[SoftTalker]

Yeah I get that it's important, I just didn't realize that angles could be meaured so accurately by eye at that time (especially on a ship that's moving around on even a moderate sea).

[throw0101c]

> I just didn't realize that angles could be meaured so accurately by eye at that time

Sextants have a bit of magnification (usually 4x, but sometimes 7x or higher). Higher mag allows for better accuracy at the cost of more shaking of the view.

Basic explanation:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30_wEda3ltM