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Phil wrote-
|
| Here is another model of "calibrator", more recent manufacture :
| http://www.hiboox.com/image.php?img=8eb1dd05.jpg
| I do not have any information on this instrument. Does anybody knows
?

I can try a guess.

There seem to be three collimators; going clockwise, in order, call
them A,B,C.

In this context a collimator is likely nothing more than a
straight-filament lamp, at the focal point of a lens, the whole
assembly rigidly assembled in a way that allows precise positioning.
It produces a broadish beam of parallel light, in a very well-defined
direction.

The sextant is placed, side on, with its index arm pivot aligned
roughly (no call for great precision here, as I see it) with the cenre
of the sweep-arc of  movable collimator C. A shines into the horizon
mirror. B, exactly parallel with A, and looking into the same point as
the centre of arc C, provides the index error.

And then you just swing C around to whatever scale angle you like, and
take the reading of the sextant when the two bright lines,
corresponding to A and C, align.

Of course, the whole thing depends crucially on exact caliration of
the arc that C is mounted on. How that calibration is obtained, I have
no idea.

The other thing that puzzles me a bit is why B is necessary. Why
couldn't that angle, at zero degrees, be catered for by just swinging
C into the position that B occupies? Any ideas? Anyone understand it
better?

George.

contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.


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