NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2021 Jan 13, 08:26 -0800
Here's an image of the "digital sextant".
There is also an "article" about it in the latest issue of "Ocean Navigator". I have put "article" in quotes because it appears to be based almost entirely on press release materials. For example, the "article" claims that the digital sextant has an accuracy of 0.3', which is a simple failure to understand the difference between accuracy and precision and the whole problem of system accuracy in celestial navigation. Even if the digital sextant has a reading precision of 0.3' (which is only a claim, without evidence), this does not imply that this can be referred to as "excellent accuracy for even an accomplished sight taker" as described in the article. This instrument does not magically improve on the sextant skills of an "accomplished sight taker". The process of taking a sight is no different from any non-digital sextant, and if you're no good at taking sights, this thing can't help!
Frank Reed
