NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Celestial Simulator
From: Phil Sadler
Date: 2018 Mar 11, 14:44 -0700
From: Phil Sadler
Date: 2018 Mar 11, 14:44 -0700
I just acquired a rather mysterious device that is some sort of celestial simulator used by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s. It appears to be able to project the sun and some stars and vary the brightness of each and the background sky. Has anyone ever seen this before? From the data plate I can see that Kollsman Instrument Corporation is the manufacturer and the unit is called a Simulator Celestial SM390A/GVM-2. It has an elapsed usage timer of 2,600 hours. From the shipping information on the case, it looks like the unit was used extensively at Kincheloe Air Force Base in Michigan and last calibrated 6/20/66. B52 bombers and KC-135 refuelers both flew out of this location which I know used celestial for navigation.
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