NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Freiberger pressie
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2002 Nov 20, 22:38 -0400
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2002 Nov 20, 22:38 -0400
George Huxtable wrote: > My conclusion? That in reality, other things like rigidity being equal, the > lighter a sextant is, the better it will be. Just my opinion, for what it's > worth. Isn't the point that other things are not equal? In particular, your archetypal crusty old sea captain likely has biceps conditioned to holding a chunk of brass at eye level for minutes on end -- a feat that the average weekend yachtsman cannot readily match when on the bucking deck of a small boat far out to sea. I'd suggest that, rigidity and wind resistance being equal, the heavier a sextant is the better, so long as its weight remains within the limit that a particular user can handle without tiring, under the particular conditions where he is using it. Trevor Kenchington -- Trevor J. Kenchington PhD Gadus@iStar.ca Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555 Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus