NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Tom Sult
Date: 2014 Feb 21, 08:25 -0600
Tom Sult
I've zoomed in on the instrument in the photo (to get us back on topic --hope no one minds). As you can see in the image below, it's a nice old wood instrument, though she's not using it correctly. There are endless puns floating in the air here, but let's agree to leave them hanging. It looks like a fairly typical mid-19th century wooden sextant/octant so judging from other "details" in the photo, it would probably have been an antique even then. The frame is presumably ebony. I suspect it's an octant rather than a true sextant, but it's really hard to tell from this angle. The vernier is a very typical 19th century design. The wooden handle, the horizon filters, the small horizon mirror, the legs (on the instrument), and the stiffening "rib" on the index arm all look quite typical for that period. There's a small scope or probably just a sight tube, but it's been rotated more or less perpendicular to the proper orientation. And basically the model is just holding the instrument up with the index mirror about to poke her in the eye. I suspect this was her first celestial navigation lesson.
-FER
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