NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Greg Rudzinski
Date: 2011 May 24, 19:09 -0700
David,
Stopwatches with a split function allows for marking the time in the display with the stopwatch still continuing. Hitting the split again will take you back to the ongoing elapsed time which can be split again to mark another time. When using this function for taking multiple CN observations the stopwatch must be started on an even minute of UT time. The split times will be added to the stopwatch start time to get the UT time of observation. Place the stopwatch in the left hand so that the index finger can depress the split button leaving the middle finger and the thumb available to rotate the micrometer drum. The benefit of the stopwatch split is that time is not committed to memory so now you have the sextant altitude and the time preserved for recording purposes.
I have been using an Ultrak 440 digital stopwatch which offers a count down function that I like in addition to the split function. The count down function is set to alarm on the even minute giving the navigator an audio mark. Audio marking is done with the stopwatch hanging around the neck so two hands are free to manipulate the sextant.
Greg Rudzinski
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