NavList:

Assuming that one does not drop their sextant, what would cause any of the mirrors, ditto for sun shields, to break?

Re your closing paragraph, there are still such instruments, sadly no longer made in this country, as I recall, and as you also noted, they are called sextants. This is not to knock the now ubiquitous GPS unit, the cheapest, hand held version of which will provide coordinates accurate to well inside 20 feet. The best sextant doesn't even come close, and it takes a lot longer too. As you noted however,, properly cared for, and that doesn't take a whole lot of effort, a sextant will pass down through generations, and it will still do what it always did, this being a fact that is comforting, to say the very least, the facts of life in our throw away society notwithstanding..

Alan

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