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    Re: My first observations with natural horizon
    From: Alexandre Eremenko
    Date: 2005 Aug 11, 12:26 -0500

    Joel,
    Your questions give me an opportunity to describe my
    limited experience in detail.
    
    1. First I found, to my surprise, that it is hard to
    find a place for a sextant in a 42 feet boat:-)
    I mean, to have the sextant box in a secure place, and at the
    same time, easily accessible. Finally I put it on a little shelf
    (with a board) in my cabin, and secured the box with towels
    to prevent it from moving horizontally. But opening the box, taking the
    sextant out and storing it back was a substantial hussle.
    I appreciated the relatively small size of the box of my sextant,
    and I disagree with Bauer who says in his book that he prefers boxes
    which allow the storage of the sextant with a telescope attached.
    This may be a luxury for big ships, but not for a small boat.
    (The largest boxes I've seen so far are those of C. Plath,
    almost the size of a siutcase:-) and the smallest ones are
    of some Hughes "Mate" sextants.
    
    2. Second, a major difficulty was to carry my sextant around
    in a rolling boat from my cabin to the cockpit and back.
    As the boat was rolling violently, I had to use my one hand
    to hold a rail (or someting else) balancing the sextant in another hand,
    anxious not to kick it against anything in the sudden moves of the
    boat. Immediately after observation, I had to carry the sextant
    back to my cabin, because there was no secure place to put it in the
    cockpit.
    
    I experimented with fixing the whole box outside, on the cabin's
    roof, under the tent, but this did not work because it interfered with
    the ropes, tent, etc.
    
    3. It was very hard in the first two days indeed.
    So hard that I had to make most observations without a scope
    in these first days. And had hudge blunders and errors.
    (I already mentioned that the zero-magnification tube
    seems to be absolutely necessary for observations without
    a scope, and I did not have it). We sailed before
    the wind, at 6 to 8 knots, with pretty large waves,
    possibly 10 feet by my estimate, and the
    boat was rolling, pitching and yawing very much.
    
    Yawing motion is the most unpleasant for sextant observations,
    especially with an inverting scope:-)
    
    4. However I adapted quickly. (Or maybe the sea was not so rough
    in the subsequent days). The best results were achieved when we
    sailed to windward and rolling was not so strong.
    
    Anyway, in the first week of August I was able to obtain
    decent results with my favorite inverting scope.
    I found that the wires help to keep the sextant vertically:
    you align the horizontal wire with the horizon.
    "Rocking" is more precise, of course, but it was not always possible
    when the boat was rolling like crazy.
    
    5. I found that the best position in the rough sea for observation was
    sitting on the cabin roof close to the mast, leaning with my
    back to the mast
    (tied to a railing with a harness, but this was mostly for
    phychological
    reasons). Soon I will post a picture of myself doing this.
    
    The hardest part was to keep the Sun and the horizon in
    the field of view for the time necessary for observation.
    I understand that inverting scope makes it much harder,
    so only now I fully understand the complains of the list members
    about the inverting scope:-) The problem was not present on land.
    
    I believe that standing at the same place would be better,
    but I found no way to fix my body in standing position,
    with both hands free, and feeling stable enough.
    
    The reason why standing positiuon is preferred is that
    in low position the waves frequently obscure the horizon.
    
    6. On smaller waves I found it most convenient sitting on
    the windward cockpit bench, with my feet pressing against the table
    in the center of the cockpit (on smaller yachts, the opposite
    bench can play this role).
    
    7. The procedure was usually this. I came to the cockpit with the scope
    detached (in my pocket). Another pocket contained a little notebook
    and a pencil. Sextant held in the right hand,
    and attached with a strap to my neck. For the timing, I used my
    waterproof wristwatch.
    
    First I put the darkest shade on the horizon mirror
    and aim it at the sun (without the scope) holding the sextant
    upside down. Keeping the Sun in view, I moved the arm until I could
    see the horizon. Then I attached the scope, engaged a dark filter
    on the index mirror and changed the filter on the horizon mirror
    for a ligter one. Keeping the sextant upright, now I tried to achieve
    a decent touch. (But of course both the Sun and the horizon try
    to escape all the time from my field of view in all directions:-)
    After I had a satisfactory touch, I looked at the watch memorizing the
    seconds first. Then, sextant hanging on a strap on my neck,
    I pulled the notebook and pencil, recorded the time, and after that,
    the sextant reading. This I tried to repeat 3-5 times, until
    the Sun hided behind the clouds, or my hand got tired
    (I really appreciate the light weight of my sextant).
    Then I had to walk and record the GPS reading for control.
    
    8. Very frequently the sextant was splashed by sea water in the process.
    So after each observation I had to rinse the mirrors and the shades
    with fresh water, and add a little oil to the drum.
    (Otherwise, next time the drum assembly will be stuck and will
    move only with an effort. First time it was stuck so strongly that I had
    to add oil before I could move it.)
    
    But even during the observation, the water drops on the mirrors
    and shades sometimes had to be wiped because they interfere with the view.
    
    9. To answer your question, I never asked to change the course,
    or anything else, to accomodate my observation. And never used
    an assistant, even to look at GPS.
    It was important who steered the boat: with a more experienced helmsman
    the boat yaws much less, and yawing was a major nuisance, as I said
    before.
    
    Following the Russian manual I observed the stars with my upright scope
    and Sun with the inverting scope. But only once there was an opportunity
    to observe the stars.
    
    Besides my sextant and watch, I carried only a notebook,
    a pencil, the Almanac and Casio calculator.
    (No reduction tables).
    
    10. I consider the enclosed screw a drawback of SNO/Freiberger
    sextants. Maybe it protects from dust but not from the splashes of
    sea water. And you cannot wipe the mechanism, and you cannot even see it.
    The only thing you can do is to add some oil.
    
    11. My "dream sextant" will have three scopes: a straight Galileo one
    some 3.5 times 50, an inverting one with wires, 6 to 8 times 40,
    a zero magnification tube (or better a "pinhole" of the old British
    sextants), several eyepieces for various magnification,
    and an eyepiece filter. It will have an open screw assembly,
    classical split view mirror, and a small box.
    
    I am aalso very curious to try a sextant with a nonius assembly
    instead of the worm screw. I've seen some outstanding examples
    in the antique shops and museums in Europe.
    I understand that this is harder to read, but the whole mechanism
    seems to me much more robust and reliable.
    (Because there is no wormscrew-and-tooth assembly which is vulnerable
    to wear, dust, small insects and sea salt:-)
    
    Alex.
    
    On Tue, 9 Aug 2005, Yourname Here wrote:
    
    > Alex,
    >
    > Since this was your first attempt to shoot from a small boat in rough 
    conditions, it would be intersting to know what procedures you used to get 
    your self postioned so that you were not concerned about falling or going 
    overboard, and what else you did to get the best sight possible.
    >
    > I guess your skipper was more concerned in getting to his destination. 
    Frequently, a change in course or heaving to, provides a much better 
    platform.
    >
    > Joel Jacobs
    > --
    > Visit our website
    > http://www.landandseacollection.com
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > -------------- Original message from Alexandre E Eremenko : --------------
    >
    >
    > > For the first time I had an opportunity to use
    > > the natural horizon.
    > > I sailed from Dublin to Kiel, with stops in
    > > the Scilly Islands, the Isle of White and Helgoland,
    > > in a 42 feet sailboat, on July 23-August 6.
    > > Unfortunately, the weather was not good for Cel Nav.
    > > For several days the Sun was not visible at all,
    > > on other days I had to use small gaps in the clouds.
    > > There was no oppornutity for Lunars, and I could make
    > > only one star observation, in unfavorable conditions.
    > >
    > > The first week was a disappointment (from the Cel
    > > Nav point of view); we sailed downwind with hudge waves,
    > > and I could only make observations without a scope.
    > > The results were very bad, but one has to take into account
    > > that these were my FIRST observations with natural
    > > horizon.
    > >
    > > One general remark on observations without a scope.
    > > I think, one HAS to use the zero-magnification tube.
    > > Otherwise, it is hard to make sure that your line
    > > of sight is parallel to the plane of the arc,
    > > especially when the boat is shaking violently, and
    > > its course is not stable.
    > > This introduces a hudge "colimation error"
    > > which resulted in errors in position line of several minutes,
    > > once even 2 degrees, though I am not sure what exactly
    > > caused such blunder.
    > >
    > > In the second week, I achieved a tolerable precision.
    > > Maybe because of some practice, but more likely,
    > > because the weather improved.
    > >
    > > Here is the statistics of all my observations in the second
    > > week (August 1-6).
    > > I used my SNO-T sextant and Casio watch. Reduction with
    > > the Almanac and Casio calculator.
    > > The number in parentheses is the number of observations
    > > averaged; if there is no number
    > > in parentheses, this means that only one observation
    > > was made. The number of minutes
    > > is the error
    > > in altitide (using GPS position as AP).
    > > August 1 Sun, 30 knots wind, waves 2-3 meters,
    > > course downwind: (5) -0.2'
    > > August 2 (Sun from a beach, Helgoland)
    > > (5) +0.5'
    > > (1) 0.0'
    > > (2) +0.5'
    > > (3) +0.5'
    > > August 4 Sun, good weather (15-17 knots wind, waves less
    > > than 1 meter): -0.1', -0.1',
    > > 0.1', -0.5',
    > > 0.3', -1.2', -0.8', -0.6', (3) -0.3'.
    > >
    > > The only star observation was on July 25:
    > > Venus (4), error -1.4' and Arcturus (1) error +3'.
    > >
    > > If anyone is interested, I can post (or send) the full detail
    > > of each observation.
    > >
    > > I also tested my new Bris sextant which I bought at
    > > Cassens-Plath factory which I visited early in July.
    > > They said that the one I bought was the last one,
    > > its production being discontinued.
    > > I will write a separate message on the Bris sextant.
    > >
    > > Alex.
    
    
    

       
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