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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sextant calibration in the workshop
From: Jean-Philippe Planas
Date: 2007 Dec 29, 01:47 -0800
From: Jean-Philippe Planas
Date: 2007 Dec 29, 01:47 -0800
Thank you Gary.
JPP
Gary LaPook <glapook@pacbell.net> wrote:
JPP
Gary LaPook <glapook@pacbell.net> wrote:
In case you didn't already have it, I have attached a manual for the SNO-T.
gl
jean-philippe planas wrote:This is an exchange of emails that took place off-list between Bill Morris and myself a couple of days ago. If anyone or Alex (having been able to read the original Russian manual) can elaborate on this to provide us with their interpretation of the SNO-T/SNO-T specifications; specially how to interpret the 30 or 36" correctible error and the 6 or 12" instrumental error (and relationship between these two quantities if any).
JPP
<engineer@clear.net.nz> wrote:Dear BillDear JPPHere is my interpretationThe "instrumental error"(6 or 12 sec, depending on the manual) is dividing and eccentricity error.The micrometer error will be errors in the micrometer screw plus the eccentricity and dividing errors of the thimble plus errors from vernier acuity(lining up the lines).Then there will be errors of estimation of the parts of a minute, there being no vernier to the micrometer.I personally don't think the errors should include backlash(12 sec), as good practice requires always approaching the reading from the same direction, but unless one knows which direction was used in the calibration, there is a potential additional error of 12 seconds.All these should add up to no more than 30 seconds(my manual) or 36 seconds(Alex's).(By all means post this to the list. I'm not sure how to).Kind regardsBill
It is my understanding that Russian SNO-T sextants may feature an arc error of up to +/- 30" for the "old" models and +/- 36" for the present models, but correct me if I am wrong. This is also in line with the russian "passeport" coming along with the sextant and stating the arc corrections with the allowable correction range (+/-30").
See http://www.sbnet.ru/sbadv/naviins/sextant.ru.html
Kind regards
JPP
engineer <engineer@clear.net.nz> wrote:
It may be of passing interest to members to learn how a sextant may be
calibrated in practice in the workshop, though not with equipment
readily available to the amateur. Two autocollimators and a surface
plate are needed. A rotary table is an extra refinement and is not
strictly necessary. The rotary table is not used as part of the
calibration process, but to rotate the sextant to the desired position
easily
A collimator is simply a lens with an illuminated graticule at its
focus, so that a parallel beam is projected and the image of the
graticule appears as if at infinity. If the beam is intercepted by a
mirror that is normal(square to) the optical axis of the collimator,
it gets reflected right back to where it came from. If the mirror is
at some angle to the optical axis, the reflected image is displaced.
In the autocollimator there is an optical arrangement called an
optical micrometer that allows the reflected image to be viewed and
its displacement to be measured directly. The amount of displacement
is dependent only on the focal length of the collimating lens and the
angular displacement of the mirror, not on the distance of the mirror
from the instrument.
Unlike length measurements, angular measurements require no official
standard to be kept, as there are always exactly 360 degrees in a
circle and 180 degrees in a straight line. This latter fact is
exploited in the calibration method. The two autocollimators are first
set up on a surface plate, a polished slab of granite about 1000 x 600
x 100 mm and flatter to better than 4 microns, so that their vertical
cross-wires coincide with each other. One is designated as the "fixed
autocollimator" and the other the "moving autocollimator" The sextant
is adjusted on a suitable stand so that the plane of its arc is
parallel to the surface plate and is set carefully to, say, 15 degrees
or some other factor of 180. Its index mirror is then placed in the
light path of the moving a/c and the whole sextant rotated until the
reflected image is seen in the a/c to coincide with the vertical cross
wire. The sextant is then set to 0 degrees, taking great care not to
move it on the surface plate, and the moving a/c moved until the
reflected image again coincides with the vertical wire. The sextant is
reset to 15 degrees and so on. After repeating this 24 times, the
sextant will have rotated through a nominal 180 degrees and the axis
of the fixed autocollimator will then be normal to the index mirror of
the sextant. Any excess or deficit can be measured by the fixed a/c.
The excess or deficit represents 24 times the error of the sextant in
moving through 0 to 15 degrees; and the axes of the autocollimators in
their final positions will be at a known angle of 7 1/2 degrees plus
or minus this error(The index mirror rotates through 7 1/2 degrees,
though the sextant index reading moves from 0 to 15). This known angle
can then be used to calibrate the rest of the scale, from 15 to 30, 30
to 45 degrees and so on. Alternatively, if many sextants are to be
calibrated, one of the a/c s can be adjusted to remove the error and
bring the axes to exactly 7 1/2 degrees, allowing the sextant error of
any step to be read off directly from one of the a/c scales. Needless
to say, once the a/c s reach their final positions they must not be
disturbed.
Errors for values greater than 15 degrees that are factors of 180 can
also be estimated ie. 120 degrees(3 steps, see attachment), 90
degrees(4 steps) 60 degrees(6 steps) and 30 degrees(12 steps). I am
not brainy enough to be able to state with certainty what effect the
number of steps has on the probable error of the result. Perhaps Alex
Eremenko can help?
Members may wonder about the precision of an autocollimator. A basic
Hilger and Watt Microptic autocollimator's least graduation is 0.2
seconds and with a little practice and a mirror of good quality,
readings can be repeated to within about 0.3 seconds. Even at first
acquaintance, repeatability to within 1 second is easy. Using a
photoelectrical readout, precision is about five times better. Its
accuracy is of a similar order. When measuring to parts of a second,
great care is needed. The instruments need to be given time to reach
the ambient temperature, overnight if possible, touching them should
be kept to a minimum and accidentally brushing against an
autocollimator when stepping out the 7.5 degree increments can mean
having to go back to the first of 48 readings again.
The setting error of the sextant is greater. Its micrometer is
altogether coarser than those of the autocollimators, its thimble is
much smaller, making for larger reading errors, the oil film
separating the parts will vary in thickness depending on temperature
and speed of setting, the whole instrument is liable to move when
resetting it unless very great care is cultivated and taken and the
error also contains the autocollimator reading errors. I may have left
something out! Even so, in a series of 24 repeat readings with a SNO-T
sextant, 95 percent of readings can be expected to fall within a range
of 3.7 seconds.
In setting the sextant micrometer, it must always be rotated in the
same direction to avoid backlash errors. In sextants like the SNO-T
and Freiberger, it does not matter in which direction, as long as it
is always the same, but in the BuShips Mark II and sextants of similar
construction including Tamaya and clones, there is only one correct
setting direction. As it has only one thrust bearing, preloaded by a
rather weak spring, it must be rotated so as to load the thrust
bearing, not the spring. In the MkII, this happens to be the direction
that decreases the reading of the instrument.
The micrometer can be calibrated directly against one of the
autocollimators and here the superiority of the SNO-T over the Mk II
shows itself. The maximum deviation of the SNO-T from 0 to 60 minutes
in 5 minute steps was 1.6 seconds, compared to 6.5 seconds for the Mk
II.
I am now in a position to answer George Huxtable's question "Has
anyone on this list, by measuring star-star distances or by any other
method, ever discovered reproducible errors, outside the terms of a
calibration certificate or maker's warranty, in a sextant? Has anyone
made calibration measurements of his own, in which he has more
confidence than in the manufacturer's scale readings, corrected as
necessary by the box certificate? And if the answer is yes, what's the
magnitude of those errors?"
According my SNO-T manual in English translation K52.514.004 TO of
1976, "Instrumental accuracy within angle range 0 to 120 degrees - +/-
6 seconds" and "Accuracy of drum scale reading - +/- 6 seconds". Alex
Eremenko's Russian manual gives "Instrumental error within the range
of measurement - 12 seconds" I have already dealt with the micrometer.
My 1981 instrument meets Alex's specification but not mine:
15d. +1"; 30d +1"; 45d +4"; 60d +7"; 75d +8"; 90d +11"; 105d +9"; 120d
+8".
My Mk II s/n 14176, 1942 in near-new condition with a certificate from
Long Beach Shipyard dated 7 January 1986, does well too, except above
90 degrees. I give the original certificate figures followed in
brackets by my own, which are each based on the mean of three careful
readings: 15d +3"(+1"); 30d -14"(-12"); 45d -17"(-16'); 60d
-25"(-22"); 75d -30"(-31"); 90d -33"(-40"); 105d -12"(-31"); 120d
0"(-30"). For most practical purposes except lunars, the differences
are insignificant.
If someone can tell me how to add attachments to the list I will post
a diagram and a photograph to make the process plainer.
Bill Morris
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