NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Paul Dolkas
Date: 2019 Jul 30, 04:35 +0000
Tony-
Here is an excerpt from the Apollo Press Kit dealing with the navigation system in the Command Module. I think the part that deals with the sextant itself starts
on page 11. It’s pretty detailed.
The Lunar Module had a different type of sextant, called an Optical Alignment Telescope in NASA-ese. The astronauts in the Command ship had the option of orienting
the entire spacecraft when they wanted to point the sextant toward a particular star, whereas once they landed on the moon, the Lunar Module couldn’t be re-oriented. So the Lunar Module sextant was kinda set up like a periscope sextant on an airplane – it
had a lens that protruded out of the “roof” that could be rotated to 6 different detent positions. Since it had a 60o field of view, that gave them a complete 360o view of the stars, up to a 60o elevation, which was good enough.
That’s one nice thing about being on the moon – no clouds to mess up the sightings!
Anyway, I also have a complete description of the Lunar Module system… somewhere. I will try to find the digital version and send it.
-Paul Dolkas
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com]
On Behalf Of Tony Oz
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2019 9:02 PM
To: Paul Dolkas
Subject: [NavList] Re: Apollo Sextant
Yes, Paul, please tell us the details you know.
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Tony
60°N 30°E
