Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: Sextant stands; was Lunar Distances: Graphic Methods
    From: Henry Halboth
    Date: 2004 Apr 25, 17:59 -0400

    I should have looked prior to my previous reply. Kieran's posting induced
    me to search the internet and was amazed to find a number of sextant
    stands portrayed - some apparently even for sale. I use "Copernic" as a
    search aid and simply typed in "Sextant Stand" - up they came. I really
    don't see, however, that it would be all that difficult to make one, or
    to adapt a suitable sized tripod. As a matter of fact, the pictures shown
    didn't seem all that practical to me.
    
    On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 18:38:24 +1000 Kieran Kelly 
    writes:
    > No they weren't custom made. Royal Navy hydrographers used them when
    > taking
    > shore based lunar distance observations and you can find them
    > occasionally
    > mentioned on exploration manifests.  They were manufactured by
    > Troughton,
    > Cary and Dolland to name a few and usually came in a leather case as
    > a kit
    > including stand, sextant and artificial horizon. I have a Plath
    > catalogue
    > from the 1920's where they were still making and selling stands.
    > There is an
    > excellent example in the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. It
    > however is
    > a surveying octant and a very large and heavy one. the stand was
    > necessary
    > to support the weight of the very large instrument.
    >
    > Pictures of the stands are shown in Ifland's Taking the Stars, pages
    > 126,
    > 127 and 136.
    >
    > I have been trying to buy a sextant stand for years to no avail so
    > if any
    > old surveyor has one in the garage I would like to hear from you. In
    > all the
    > time I have been collecting sextants I have never seen a stand
    > offered on E
    > bay and that's saying something given the plethora of stuff that
    > washes
    > through its sextant site.
    >
    > Kieran Kelly
    > Sydney
    >
    
    
    

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site