NavList:

Richrad,

you’re very welcome! I’m happy it proved useful and also that you’ve enjoyed working the sights. You’re results are practically identical to those I obtained with

my evaluation version of SkyMate Pro (27-22,8N 123-39,4E) and close to the original solution worked out with haversine method and graphical plotting, i.e. 27-22,0N 123-40,5E.

Federico

Mille grazie!  This is precisely what I was hoping for!  :-D  I'll give W&P a call to see if they can help with the eye piece as well, although I have my doubts on that score.  Still, I'm not that far from them so it's easy enough to do.  Again, many thanks for your help. 


SPOILER ALERT


BTW, I plugged the data from your father's notes (nice group of sights!) into calculators running StarPilot and was interested to see the difference (TI-86 (V1.55) and TI-92+ (V2.05) - 6.13 nm and 6.11 nm respectively) in the distance from the fixes to EP.  Working through the data also gave me a chance to refresh my recollection of how each version works. 

FWIW, I came up with 27-22.7N 123-39.4E for the fix. 

Rick Emerson
S/V One With The Wind

Federico Rossi wrote:

Rick,

some years ago I owned a Plath bubble horizon that I later sold on eBay.

Among my nav files I've found this instruction manual that someone emailed

me.

I'm attaching it, hope it can help you.

Federico

-----Messaggio originale-----

Da: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] Per conto di

Richard B. Emerson

Inviato: lunedì 11 agosto 2008 2.04

A: NavList@fer3.com

Oggetto: [NavList 6106] Re: C. PLATH BUBBLE HORIZON

Bump - I'm still looking for some help with the points raised below.

Rick Emerson

S/V One With The Wind

RBEmerson wrote:

I'd like to branch this topic and ask about the older "full monty"

Plath bubble horizon.  I have one and I've got some questions about

it.

First, the rubber around the eyepiece (call it an eyecup, I guess) is

basically on its way out (dried out and crumbling along a part of the

edge) - can anyone recommend a reasonable (good fit and costs less

than a new sextant ;-) ) replacement?  Second, except with the solar

filter over the objective, the bubble is simply too dim to be seen

when shining a bright LED flashlight down through the opening for the

bulb.  Even then, the image is very dim.  Advice on living with the

bubble horizon, in general, is welcome (anyone got a PDF of the

instructions?).  (The battery compartment in my Plath still needs

help, thanks to a less than attentive prior owner - hence the test

with a flashlight)

I bought the unit as part of a sextant sold on eBay some time ago

(well over 5 years ago at least).  In retrospect, this may have been

something of a con job gone wrong as the sextant may well have been

the Soviet SNO/CHO clone, sold as a Plath (what did I know?), but the

bubble horizon is a for-real Plath horizon, bought for peanuts (I sold

the sextant and the buyer didn't gripe - no hurt, no foul, I guess).

On Jul 3, 5:24 pm, Ken Gebhart <GEBH...@CELESTAIRE.COM> wrote:

Joel,

About five years before C. Plath went out of production (say 6 years

ago?), they came out with abubblechamber which did not have the

adjusting mechanism. As I recall, it had an internal battery, and did

not rely on the batteries in the sextant handle.  I also seem to

recall that the light had no adjustable rheostat either.  I asked

them why they omitted these desirable features.  They replied that

they were made to milspec, and that's what the specs said.  They were

very expensive too, about $1700.  I believe this is the unit you have.

Their previous adjustable bubbles were very nice, and dated nearly

back to WWII.  I don't know when they were discontinued.

Ken Gebhart

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