NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: cheap Davis sextant
From: Joe Shields
Date: 1999 Jul 27, 1:44 PM
From: Joe Shields
Date: 1999 Jul 27, 1:44 PM
Here is my 2 cents worth on the cheap Davis sextant (Mark 3, $27-30): I bought one after being sorely disappointed with the contraption I built with copper tube, protractor, fishing line and sinker. With the Davis Mark 3, I was able to teach myself Celestial Navigation well enough to greatly amuse myself for these past 11 years (and challenge the ASA Certification Celestial Nav. exam -- [passed with 92%]). Every weekend morning when the sun is shining (and noon in wintertime when the sun is low enough), you will find me checking my position (Lat 40d34' Long 80d04') by shooting the sun using my sextant and artificial horizon. I find that if I take 4 quick shots in a row - derive an average time and height from them and then reduce the average (using H.O. 211), I am consistently within 2 nm. Individual readings however will typically vary +/-5 nm. I want a metal sextant so bad I can taste it, however, if placed in a situation where I had to navigate celestially and only had my cheap plastic sextant to rely on, I'd be all right with that. -- Joe Shields
