NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2011 Oct 3, 03:55 -0700
I moved my wax artificial horizon to a more convenient location. I simply melted the wax again and poured it into the repositioned plate.I took about 20 sights with very good results. I then used my gunner's quadrant to measure how level the mirror was. I measured across a number of diameters and the largest out of level measurement I found was 0.8 mils. Since there are 6,400 mils in a circle, one mil is 3.375' so 0.8 mils equals 2.7'. Close enough for me.
(A gunner's quadrant is used for setting the elevation on field artillery pieces.)
See photos.
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I was just trying to think of what liquid I could use and I considered glue or floor leveling compound but both are viscous so might not achieve a perfectly level surface. Then yesterday suddenly it came to me, wax! I went to a crafts store today and bought a pound and a half of candle wax for $7.00 and a 7 inch round mirror for $3.00, total, ten bucks. I filled a large pan with water, put the wax in a disposable foil pan and floated it in the pan of water, Then I boiled the water which melted the wax which melts at 148° F. I placed an eight inch plastic plate on my patio and poured the wax into it and covered the whole thing with a large lid to keep any breeze from ruffling the surface before it had a chance to harden. I gave it a half hour, removed the lid and carefully placed the mirror onto the wax surface.
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