NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Lunars hard to shoot?
From: Richard B. Emerson
Date: 2000 Sep 07, 6:34 AM
From: Richard B. Emerson
Date: 2000 Sep 07, 6:34 AM
Paul Hirose writes: > While looking at the quarter moon last night, I began thinking about > lunars. The part I was specifically wondering about is measuring the > angular separation between star and Moon with a sextant. I assume you > use the illuminated limb of the Moon as your "horizon". Problem is, > you are trying to bring a bright star into coicidence with a bright > limb. I imagine a normal sight is easier, because you see a bright > body against a dark horizon. However, I don't own a marine sextant. > Anyone ever tried this? Do the horizon shade glasses cut the glare of > the Moon enough to align the star accurately with the limb? In a word, certainly. Different sextants have different filter sets but a good sextant should offer a range of filters from "dim the glare" to "look straight at the sun". When I did the Moon shots mention in my "A Small Puzzle" note. I used the lightest filter to take off some of the glare and I occasionally use a filter to dampen glare on the horizon when shooting the Sun, too. Rick S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35