The octant has a mahogany frame, limb and index arm, with brass fittings, and a brass stop for the index arm. It also has an inlaid ivory plate on the crossbar. There is no tangent screw and the clamping screw is on the back of the index arm. The octant has two socket shades in red, and orange. Index-glass adjustment is made by a screw and on both horizon glasses by levers, wing nuts and milled clamping screws. The sight vane has two pinholes, whereas the back sight vane has one pinhole. One of the wooden feet is missing from the frame. The octant is contained in an oak keystone box with a stepped lid, partly painted red on the inside and partly grey on the outside. There are traces of writing, which are illegible, on the lid as well as a carved anchor and a label marked, ‘Lot 418’.

The instrument has an inlaid boxwood transversal scale from 0° to 90° by 20 arcminutes, which is vice versa for the zenith distance, measuring to 90°. The scale reads to 2 arcminutes by the fiducial edge, which has an ivory lining at the end of the index arm.