An analytical solution to the capillary equation of Young and Laplace is derived that allows determination of the static contact angle based on the volume of a sessile drop and the wetted area of the substrate. This solution does not require numerical integration to determine the drop profile and accounts for surface deformation due to gravitational effects. Calculation of the static contact angle by this method is remarkably simple and accurate when the contact angle is less than 30degrees. A natural scaling arises in the solution, which provides indication of when a drop is small enough so as to neglect gravitational influences on the surface shape which, for small contact angles, is generally less than 1 mul. The technique described has the simplicity of the spherical cap approximation but remains accurate for any size of sessile drop. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.