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Re: Advice on Box Sextant
From: Francis Upchurch
Date: 2016 Apr 1, 09:55 -0700
From: Francis Upchurch
Date: 2016 Apr 1, 09:55 -0700
Re Chichester Tasman sea flight and which sextant
I've just read Chichester again and on page 13 he says he gave up on his Booth bubble sextant with artificial horizon (740 miles out!) and went back to "an ordinary sextant , fly low and use natural horizon". He also talks about removing the extra dark shades when the sun went behind a cloud. (Not sure if the Box sextant has those?) On page 49, after his final sun shot before sighting Norfolk Island, he "dismantled the sextant and put it away in its case." I've always read that as a normal marine sextant put back in it's box, but maybe there is other evidence for the Box sextant? I haven't seen any, but would be happy to stand corrected. What does Gary think?
Best wishes.
Francis