NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Calibrating a sextant scale
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2007 Nov 21, 13:29 -0500
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2007 Nov 21, 13:29 -0500
Ken, > I bet you change your mind after > trying to take some handheld shots using > a 12x scope. ;-) I understand what you are talking about. (And have some experience with looking at the sky with a 10x50mm binocular). And of course I would favor a stable platform for this sort of experiments. The problem is that I just do not have a good enough 10x or 12x telescope which could be attached to my sextant. Schufeldt says: when people try a sextant with 12x scope they feel disappointed first (the stars shake like crazy in the field of view). But when they see the results of reduction they are surprised how much more precise the results are (in comparison with the usual scopes). > and the ability to take sights for > hours without getting tired That's slightly different problem. In measuring star-to-star distances, you can relax as much as you need after several shots. My hand gets usually slightly tired after 5 shots, and 10 shots in row seems to be a reasonable maximum. But then I just relax for 10 minutes, exercise my hand, etc. As I said, I do not object a stable platform. The problem with my own conditions is that even if I have a mount or a tripod, I afraid I will have the same problems as with artificial horizon: the whole thing will shake. I will probably need a floor of hard rock to install it, and this I do not have. Or I will need an extremelly heavy mount. Alex. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---