What about adapting a 12x50 monocular to a high end sextant clamped to sturdy tripod? Once patiently calibrated on a tripod I would naturally expect to be able to reach equipment precision limits on accuracy (maybe helping with a pocket comparator too; maybe patiently finding and recording fine...
Planning to manually rediscover or confirm our exact place in the Solar System, Galaxy and Universe. I've noticed that even 50 mm high quality amateur telescopes are likely well better than what Galileo Galilei era scientists had for the first half century. The theodolite looks like an inspiring...