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).
> 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.
