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Not having had much luck (without constructing an elaborate wind shield) making a home made water based Artificial Horizon, I thought I would have a go at making a "solid" tripod type - as I have seen others nicely construct on this forum.

Having an optically nice mirror, from junk in my Garage, I didn't need much else to build something.

I thought it appropriate to use a (rigid) plastic base - to go with my plastic Mk 15 Davis Sextant.

$2.50 - Rigid plastic kitchen chopping board 

$4.86 - Twin pack, Builders Line level

$6.33 - Four pack, Furniture leveling screws (used upside down!).

My total cost = $ 13.69

Yesterday I tried it out, measuring the Sun - on a warm balmy Spring day.

Although I am still very new to using a sextant, I managed to get a nice set of readings, all less than 3 minutes of arc as compared to Frank's "Anti Spoof" app. The 'app' was operated by my lovely assistant who pressed the 'pause' button when I said "now". She wrote down the app angle, and what I read off the Davis. She did not tell me any of the numbers until I had taken 10 sights.

I must say, I *REALLY* enjoyed juggling the red and yellow sun, and judging when the coloured circles touched (Lower Limb, in the afternoon sun). I feel the accuracy was mainly limited by my sextant inexperience, rather than the mirror - which leveled really nicely with the nice metal knobs!

I have attached a photo, showing the easy construction - all I had to do was drill 3 holes! 

A very enjoyable and fun quick project!

Regards, Geoff Hitchcox, Christchurch, New Zealand.

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