NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2015 Oct 18, 11:02 -0700
Stan you said "vernier sextants are impossible to use anyway ;-)"
I'm not sure what you meant by that. Did you mean sextants with the vernier against the arc, or sextants with a vernier against the drum? Did you mean the vernier itself was impossible to use, or were you referring to the fact that they're probably quite old and have smaller mirrors than todays sextants and the marks on the arc are getting worn? Perhaps you just meant you have to stare at the reading for a long time to make sense of it. I suppose that's why the old sextants had a swing-over magnifying glass. My attempt below would have been OK if I'd just had a bit more patience shaping the edge, but I was running out of time. I can't even remember now if I was supposed to make it one division too large or too small or if it mattered. I don't think I used the dividing engine as I did on the arc (you might say "That's pretty obvious"). It appears to be reading 67° 47'. DaveP
