NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: John Brown
Date: 2015 Mar 29, 02:44 -0700
Some binnacle mounted yacht compasses are equipped with a shadow pin, which will provide reciprocal bearings of the sun at moderate altitudes. A shadow pin or angled sighting vane on a pelorus mounted remotely from the compass can also be used.
The big ship solution for azimuths of all celestial bodies is to use a pelorus or alidade mounted on a standard compass or a compass repeater. These have some sort of reflecting device, usually a prism, which enables the observed object to be brought down into visual coincidence with the graduations of the compass card - very easy to use. These devices are fitted with shades for sun observations.
When selecting stars for sextant shots it is only necessary to preset the sextant for the approximate altitude and sight roughly across the compass repeater to find the selected star somewhere in the field of view. If no suitable compass is available, rough relative bearings will usually locate the object without difficulty.
Regards
John
