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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Home made artificial horizon
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2011 Sep 30, 21:21 -0700
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2011 Sep 30, 21:21 -0700
I decided to revisit an idea that I had proposed last January of using a liquid that would level itself and then turn into a solid and I suggested using water for our northern brethren, see: http://www.fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=115473&y=201101 I was just trying to think of what liquid I could use and I considered glue or floor leveling compound but both are viscous so might not achieve a perfectly level surface. Then yesterday suddenly it came to me, wax! I went to a crafts store today and bought a pound and a half of candle wax for $7.00 and a 7 inch round mirror for $3.00, total, ten bucks. I filled a large pan with water, put the wax in a disposable foil pan and floated it in the pan of water, Then I boiled the water which melted the wax which melts at 148° F. I placed an eight inch plastic plate on my patio and poured the wax into it and covered the whole thing with a large lid to keep any breeze from ruffling the surface before it had a chance to harden. I gave it a half hour, removed the lid and carefully placed the mirror onto the wax surface. Then for the test. I observed Rasalhague with my Tamaya........ drum roll please! Intercept 1.2 nm T. Dah-dah.. gl --- On Thu, 9/29/11, Gary LaPook <glapook@pacbell.net> wrote:
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