NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Calibrating a sextant scale
From: Ken Muldrew
Date: 2007 Nov 21, 11:16 -0700
From: Ken Muldrew
Date: 2007 Nov 21, 11:16 -0700
On 21 Nov 2007 at 13:10, Alexandre E Eremenko wrote: > Ken, > > > For example, it would be crazy not to use a motorized equitorial > > mount rather than holding the sextant by hand. > > Holding sextant by hand does not constitute a problem > (in my experience). The main problem in my case is SEEING > when two stars exactly coincide. The main problem is > with the telescope (and eyes:-). > > Perhaps a very high quality 10x or 12x large diameter telescope > will help. My 6x 30mm inverting is by far superior to > the standard modern sextants Galileo scopes, but it is not enough > to determine the arc correction with star distances. > I can also mention capitan Schufeldt (one of the very > few researchers > of the accuracy of sextant observations whose paper is available > to me). He strongly advocates high quality 12x telescopes > for very precise observations. > He also recommends using younger observers for this purpose:-) I bet you change your mind after trying to take some handheld shots using a 12x scope. ;-) But seriously, a good scope, and as much time as you need looking at a stationary image of the two stars, and the ability to take sights for hours without getting tired will surely improve your results. Ken Muldrew. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---