NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Digital Sextant
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2002 Apr 1, 16:13 -0800
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2002 Apr 1, 16:13 -0800
In the C. Plath history book, page 133, there is a great color photo of a prototype Plath sextant that contained an integrated celestial navigation calculator. It has always intrigued me. I have put a copy of the photo on my web site here: http://home.attbi.com/~danallen46/Sextants.htm (About 2/3rd of the way down the page) It has always seemed to me that if one could gather in a small device: a) a twin-quartz clock good to 1 second of accuracy per year like my Omega watch b) a nice Plath-like angle measurement device with a digital sensor to help measure angles c) another digial sensor (what kind?) to serve as an artificial horizon d) a small computer with software containing the equivalent of the nautical almanac for many years then with these elements in place one could imagine a navigation device that would be almost as simple to use as a GPS, but which was totally stand-alone and required no signals from radio or satellites. If the electronics were low power enough the device could perhaps even be solar powered for the ultimate in self-sufficiency. A press of a button would measure the angle, note the exact time, and would check the current attitude of the sextant, and then proceed with the calculations yielding the same output as with normal sextants. A memory could remember these sights and then after several had been taken a running fix could be achieved. I would certainly buy such a device if one existed at a price less than $1,000. Dan -----Original Message----- From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Vic Fraenckel Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 5:24 AM To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Digital Sextant I would like to ask if anyone has heard of, tried to build or was successful in building a all digital sextant. I have thought about this for many years but the technology for measuring angles to the necessary precision was way too expensive for my taste. I think perhaps it might be possible to do this today with a reasonable cost. Altitudes could be measured with optical encoders and the data could be transmitted to a computer at will along with the time of the sight and processed. Any thoughts? Any enlightenment would be appreciated. Vic ________________________________________________________ Victor Fraenckel - The Windman vfraenc1@nycap.rr.com KC2GUI www.windsway.com Home of the WindReader Electronic Theodolite Read the WIND