[57] A distal targeting system for determining the location and orientation of an instrument relative to a target, comprising: a movable guide assembly (22) for guiding an instrument toward a target; a plurality of field generators in said guide assembly that generate known distinguishable fields in response to drive signals; one or more sensors (24) disposed at known locations with respect to said target that generate sensor signals in response to said field, said sensors having known alignments with an axis of said target; a signal processor responsive to said drive signals and said sensor signals for producing three location coordinates of a point on said guide assembly and two orientation coordinates of an axis of said guide assembly; and a display (36) responsive to said signal processor that provides an indication of a location of said point with respect to said target and of an alignment between said axis of said guide assembly and said axis of said target.
