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Bill,

> I suspect however, that the differences in stiffness are of little
> practical importance, until the sextant is dropped. Bronze frames bend.

I mentioned that I mostly practice Lunars. For the Lunars, the frame
rigidity is of prime importance. Because you hold the sextant in all
possible positions, by the frame, by the handle, upside down etc.
I could clearly see with 11x (native) telescope,
how the C. Plath (circ 1910-1918)
frame bends. I am talking of 0'3-0'5 of difference when you hold
the sextant differently.

Of course, no practical significance when you only take altitudes,
and always hold it by the handle, vertically.

In general, as I noticed once, SNO-T is a dream sextant for a XVIII
century
Lunarian:-) With its 140d arc, front silvered mirrors, and cross wires
in the telescope:-)
Why they made it like this? Probably for taking horizontal angles...
For coast navigation, pointing the guns etc:-)
Why else one wold need 140d at sea...

> I am not a rich man and the book sales are unlikely to make me one :-).

Sure. You have to write on a different subject to make money:-)
Neither you will make money by making dip meters, and I afraid to say,
by sextant repair:-)

Spekaing of the prices, my impression is the same. SNO-T went up somewhat,
early or mid century with bronze frames down, early XIX century and
wood octants up (and becoming more rare). The supply of Russian
chronometers seems to be exhausting. And they sell Russian deck watches
for $999 nowadays, which is much more than I payed for a chronmeter
5 years ago.
(perhaps the greatest increase among all such all items).

Alex.

   

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