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    Re: Plastic vs Metal Sextants
    From: Rodney Myrvaagnes
    Date: 1999 Aug 27, 11:41 AM

    On Fri, 27 Aug 1999 18:17:01 +0100, George Huxtable wrote:
    
    >
    >My experience, over the last 30 years, has been with Ebbco plastic
    >sextants, and my arguments will relate to those instruments. Many readers
    >will be unfamiliar with the Ebbco, so I will start by describing it.
    
    I bought an Ebbco for about $50 US in 1977, with which to
    teach myself celestial. I agree with George that you could
    go around the world with it. On a 26-foot boat the pitching
    of the platform will wipe out the accuracy advantages of a
    good sextant.
    
    However, I found the Ebbco very unpleasant to use, because
    it was easy to get sunlight in my eye around the filters,
    scattered from something. I also noticed that sunlight
    caused the index error to drift for about 30 minutes after
    taking it out of the box.
    
    Caveat:  I don't know the model of the Ebbco. It may be a
    cheaper one than those George described.
    
    I came upon a very nice brass sextant at an auction, with
    nobody else interested because it wasn't old enough (1958),
    so I haven't used the Ebbco since.
    
    A few years ago I tried a Davis Mk 10 on a trip from Nova
    Scotia to Maine, and found it much more comfortable to use
    than my memories of the Ebbco.
    
    
    Rodney Myrvaagnes                   J36 Gjo/a
    Associate Editor           Electronic Products
    20+ years without a car, a TV, or a website
    

       
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