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Re: Recertification of a sextant : Re: anyone familiar with a LunaSextant?
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2013 Dec 26, 20:54 -0500
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2013 Dec 26, 20:54 -0500
Hello Greg
Sadly, no such service exists anymore. (Someone, anyone, please please please tell me I'm wrong). You can no longer have your arc calibrated by a metrology lab as a standard practice.
There has been intermittent conversation on these boards as to how to calibrate the arc. I'm still not sure that there is any broad agreement on the practices and procedures to undertake, in the absence of such service you requested. Some feel star to star distances will work, a point with which I do not agree. Others feel that the lunar distance can be made to work. Possibly, but long term averages will be required and a further pre-requisite will be absolute mastery of the instrument and the measurement.
Brad
On Dec 26, 2013 7:58 PM, "Greg Licfi" <cfi@licfi.com> wrote:
Hi All, Does anyone know of a service that would check the certification of a sextant and supply me with a new calibration card? How much would this cost? Is it silly to do this on a instrument from 1982? The cert that came with it originally said: "no errors for practical navigation" but down in the lower right corner it said "RES: 0.02" which I would take to be a resolution of 0.02 of a degree i.e.; a little over a minuet of arc (0.016666) But I have seen certs on sextants showing errors in arc seconds. In practical terms how important is this? Thanks, ~Greg On 12/26/2013 03:55 PM, Greg wrote: > Hi all, > forgive the bandwidth but is anyone here familiar with a sextant > sold as the "Luna Sextant" > by the apparently now defunct "Luna Trading Company, Matairie LA" I > just bought it last week > off of ebay from a guy in Georgia. The sextant appears in to be > pristine condition no wear on > the worm or the scale gear. I saw another one being sold by a > Salvation Army group in Texas, > but it was bid up too high for me. This one cost me $425. we have not > had any clear view of > the sky due to clouds to try a 'real' sight, then the holiday, but > initial puttering with it shows that > I can set the IE to zero, and if I sight on a distant house etc, and > take a altitude, then return to > 0 degrees the IE is still zero - (unlike my plastic Davis sextant). > The seller threw in a book he had > got with it called "Celestial Navigation" (C) 1989 by Tom Cunliffe The > book has the previous > owners name, FL address, and phone number but the phone is > disconnected and I think this > might have been purchased at an estate sale for speculation (?) Any > Idea how good or bad this > instrument is, and what I should expect for accuracy (on land for the > moment)? > Many thanks in advance, > ~Greg > 'Svenska Flicka' > Cat 28 #467 >