Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mekon
Interesting. The cheapest plastic sextant would perhaps have an error of 1/10th of a degree - up to 6 miles out. Good for other purposes like measuring heights or horizontal angles.
I had two sextants until a few years ago. An old brass Hezzanith - sold for $600. I still have my Tamaya which has a scale reading to 1/5th of a minute, or 30x the accuracy of the plastic job.
|
Agree John,
I wouldn't personally use a plastic sextant... I cut my teeth as an RAN Seaman Officer on an Admiralty Pattern Vernier Sextant. Can't recall the accuracy, depended on the Midshipman taking the sights... LOL
With the cheap price of GPS units these days I can't imagine the average Yachtie even bothering with a sextant these days... Navy still teaches it's use but, no where near as comprehensively as they used to. My first sight reduction was from first principles using Log tables.. groan...
Still have my Astro-Navigation notes & my Ocean Navigation Certificate Sight Book...