Sextant having night viewing capability and digital readout and portable computer system

Claim 1

A portable, real-time celestial navigation system adapted to be used for either day or night navigation, comprising: a hand-held sextant adaptable for day and night use comprising an electronic light enhancing telescope removably mounted on said sextant for viewing the night horizon, a horizon mirror affixed to said sextant in optical alignment with said telescope, a tiltable index mirror rotatably mounted on the line-of-sight of said sextant, a gear train connected to said index mirror for changing the angle of tilt, manual coarse and fine adjustment means coupled to said gear train for affecting the tilt of said index mirror, a shaft encoder mechanically coupled to said gear train for producing an electrical output representing the altitude of a celestial body, said electrical output being controlled by means of a push-button on said sextant, a handgrip movably attached at the center of gravity of said sextant; and a portable computer for solving the trignometric equations of celestial navigation, said computer being coupled to said sextant and adapted to accept said electrical output, said computer containing means for reading ephemeral data of celestial bodies into said computer, said reading means comprising a first reader having a magnetic head for reading data stored on magnetic tape and a second reader for reading data from punched cards, a manual input means comprising a keyboard having manually depressable key operatively connected to said computer, a clock providing an automatic output of time and data to said computer, said clock input being controlled by said push-button control on said sextant, memory means for input data, and readout means comprising an erasable digital display and a removable printed record for displaying the solution of the celestral navigation equations.