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GregR wrote-

| Thanks for the offer of assistance.
|
| There's a nice-looking Astra IIIB Deluxe up for
auction on E-Bay
| (http://tinyurl.com/ekpzd) that looks like a
pretty good deal (includes
| bubble horizon, both full-field and
split-horizon mirrors, etc.), but
| it's run for several days and absolutely
*nobody* has bid on it yet. I
| was wondering if anyone on the Nav-L list had
any experience with this
| guy, or maybe this was an Astra model to avoid?
|
| I'm looking to upgrade from the plastic Davis
sextant to something more
| professional (probably an Astra, since I don't
do CelNav for a living),
| and since they're in such high demand I was just
curious why nobody had
| bid on this particular one yet. Feel free to bid
on it yourself if
| you'd like to, if it's a good deal for you then
that's a fair trade-off
| for your offer of off-list help.  :-)

====================

I'm glad that GregR posted his message to the list
as a whole, rather that to me only (even if that
was inadvertent). He will get much better advice
on buying a sextant from other members than from
me.

Although in my time I have used several sextants,
belonging to others, the only ones I have ever
OWNED have been plastic (Ebbco). Those, I feel,
are more appropriate to the limited accuracy you
can get from the wobbly footing of a (very) small
craft such as mine.

True, I have recently attempted to buy a Vernier
sextant on Ebay UK, with near-disastrous
consequences. That wasn't intended for life at
sea, but more for practice on land, perhaps
playing with lunars, for which a plastic sextant
is not adequate.

I would suggest to GregR that he should not be in
a hurry to upgrade his plastic sextant. It's
perfectly good enough for acquiring a lot of
sight-taking experience, and good enough to
navigate him to where he wants to go. In time, he
will know enough to make his own choices. If he is
keen to splash out, then the advice of a
professional such as Doug Royer should be taken
very seriously.

George.

============

contact George Huxtable at
george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13
5HX, UK.

   

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