NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Metal versus plastic or better telescope?
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Mar 27, 20:00 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Mar 27, 20:00 -0400
Alan, You wrote: > By the way, is anyone other than the above mentioned making > sextants these days, or have they become, like the slide rule, things of > the past In summer 2005 I visited both Freiberger and Cassens Plath factories. Both were making sextants. I asked Freiberger people about sales, and they told me that sales are good. Approximately at the same time I called SNO factory by phone, and spoke with the director. He said that they were still making SNO-T, "for the Russian Navy", but I have some doubts in this. Many SNO-T are still available on e-Bay, including some never used ones (in factory wrapping). By the way, I agree with the opinion of Bill Morris that SNO-T is "probably the best sextant ever made". I tried seriously only 3 or 4 sextants in my life (including a C. Plath in good condition, and a 2 new Astras). But Bill M not only tried but also disassembled and repaired more than 30 of different makes. And he has testing equipment. So his opinion has heavy weight. Alex.