NavList:

Scott:

I also have both a Davis Mark 15 and an Astra 111B.

I purchased the Mk.15, second hand through Ebay, it came with a leveling device that precluded the need to "rock" the sextant, I think this device is no longer produced. Price I paid for the Davis was quite reasonable, I thought, and so far as I could tell, the sextant was "as advertised".Comparing the two instruments, the Astra, to me, has a better "feel", it's telescope is certainly superior to the scope that comes with the Davis Mk. 15, and mechanically, the Astra is a lot more instrument, which one would expect, given the price difference.

Otherwise, I would think that one could certainly shoot the sun and moon with the Davis during daylight hours. As to star shots, I cannot say, however as to moving and or turning things, both sextants work the same way.

One thing with the Davis, and I expect plastic sextants in general is wandering index errors, a situation with which one has to live. check index error often and either adjust it out, action that some advise against, or make the appropriate arithmetic correction. With ,my Davis, I had noticed index errors as great as 8 or 9 minutes, while with the Astra, when there is any, it is much less than that.

I guess, as with so many things, one pays their money and chooses.

Alan
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