NavList:

Bill, you wrote:

"It looks like she (or the artist) thinks it's an astrolabe..."

 

That's what I was thinking, too. The mural was supposed to depict the advancement of the science of navigation. I can imagine the artist presenting a preliminary version of the painting with an astrolabe in the hands of "Calm". The director of the project then says, 'no, it has to be more modern... replace the astrolabe with a sextant'. And the artist does as told, literally masking out the astrolabe and painting a sextant in the same place, despite the awkward pose. Ironically, the "modern" sextant in the final product now looks as antique as any astrolabe would have to most visitors to the Griffith Observatory, but back in 1934 I'm sure most visitors recognized it for what it was.

 

Here's a link to a wider view of the mural: http://www.publicartinla.com/LA_murals/Silverlake/griffith/navigation.html

 

It turns out the Observatory re-opened just this past Friday, November 3rd.