My 3rd mate's ink isn't quite dry on his license yet. He is from KP
and tells me that the Astra IIIBsextant is part of the deck cadet's
seabag. Being that the Astra IIIB is a fine instrument at an affordable
price, it does not surprise me that it is the sextant of choice for the
academies.
At Mass Maritime, the Regulus sextants dated from the 1970's and have been
ill used and ill adjusted as part of Navigation I class by hundreds of
cadets. My friend who is on the current seaterm informs me that they are
still in use.
When I was a senior and using my C&P, i didn't understand why i
was finished with my observations while my classmates were still trying to
locate the stars. I borrowed one and found I had a tough time even finding
Sirius in the scope, let alone Polaris. I learned why they hated
reductions and did most of them "backwards."
Another short story is one guy asked me to check out his sextant because he
couldn't get a good observation to save his life. I found so much side
error that i couldn't see both images of the sun in the scope at the same
time. I corrected his sextant as best I could and got to about 1.2' of IE
just to get him started.
Needless to say, I've had bad experiences with those tiny sextants.
Jeremy
In a message dated 2/15/2011 11:10:55 P.M. Bangladesh Standard Time,
alan202@verizon.net writes:
Not being familiar with the Regulus sextant mentioned, the following comes
to mind.
While at the beach, Eastern North Carolina,I have a couple of times run
into company grade USMC officers, (lieutenants), who were graduates of Kings
Point, prior to entry into the USCM.
I was shooting sun lines eith my Astra 111B at the time. They asked if I
were a "professional" to which I answerwed, thanks for the kind word, but no,
I wasn't.
They then asked which sextant I was using? When I mentioned the Astra 111B,
they responded that they had used them "at school", Kings Point, and that they
had seemed like good
sextants.
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