NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Visit to Freiberg
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2005 May 28, 10:58 -0400
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2005 May 28, 10:58 -0400
Here's a physical explanation for Alex' previous results, where his readings were too large. On May 27, 2005, at 9:41 PM, Bill wrote: > Repeated the experiment today and STDEVs were in the same ballpark, > but the > angle off the arc had grown by a full minute. In essence (working > backwards), the difference between the line of sight through the > scope and > axis of the index mirror was 1 inch more than reality based on todays > angles. I then did an IE check with the SUN, and overnight my IC > went from > -.5' to +.5'. > > Despite using the supplied brush on a regular basis, I could see a > brass > build up in frequently used areas with the naked eye, and used a > loupe to > examine the arc teeth. They could be cleaner. I used a new > toothbrush (as > toothpaste has abrasives) to clean the arc until the brass was gone > and they > looked clean under the loupe. Then I lubricated the arc and worm > gear. I > still had a little tactile bump when the drum was rotated through > 60 minutes > which I had mentioned to Ken, but it seemed to move locations about > 15-20 > minutes with each rotation as before. Then I looked at the worm > gear with > the loupe. There was a little smidge of something animal, > vegetable, or > mineral that was lodged in the worm-gear (and must have sneaked in > there > between bringing the sextant in last night, putting it in the box, and > taking it outside today). It was barely visible to the naked eye > when I knew > where to look. > > I cleaned the worm gear and went back out to my parallax test > range. Bingo, > target numbers were the same as yesterday, and IC was back to -.5' > from the > earlier shift to +.5'. >