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Hello-
Just joined the group.  My name is Neil and live on Gwynn's Island in
Virginia.  Own and sail a Nicholson 32.  I have 2 sextants, an old
Leupold (which I have used off and on for the past 15 years) issued to
the MM during wwII and one that I just purchased off of Ebay, a
Freiberger made around the mid 70's.  I went for a weekend cruise which
gave me a chance to try the new sextant.  I did an index mirror
perpendicularity check.  It looked fine, checked for side error and it
too looked ok.  I did not do a collimation check until I got home, and
it was just a rough check.  I am concerned that it may be off.  I will
come back to this in a moment.
Saturday in the bay, I checked for index error, then took a morning
shot.  I only took one.  My LOP was .8 nm from my DR so I felt good
about the sextant.  Sunday I decided to shoot a series of sights and
the first 3, my LOP was off between 4 and 12 nm!  I took the Leupold
out, made a shot, LOP was .5nm from DR, tried again with the Freiberger
and it was off again by many miles.
Back home, I did the basic collimation and just wonder if the
reflection of the telescope should be smack dab in the center of the
mirror?  I believe it is supposed to be.  The reflection I see when the
scale is set to zero is centered top to bottom but not side to side, it
is over to the left.  Could this cause the error I have.  Is there an
adjustment to correct this without taking it to a professional?  I am
going to do more testing in the mean time.
Thanks-
Neil

   

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