NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2015 Apr 7, 12:20 -0700
Today’s sunshine also gave me the chance to try out the DP Artificial Horizon Mk2 (Below). This uses the mirror from a 1950s style airman’s locker (they don’t make them like they used to). It ought to be big enough to allow shots on three stars without reorientating it. I haven’t glued the round spirit level on, so that I can move it around, but I have to remember to put it in my pocket when I’m finished. The first Sun shot was centre to centre and came out about 3.5nm away from my true position. The second was edge to edge and was spot on, which was too good to be true, so it must have been a fluke. On the other hand, it might have been 32 miles out. I was having great difficulty deciding which was which image and thus which the top and bottom edges were. I think/hope I shot the tops. I just couldn’t get the shades effective but different. At least the brightness made it easy to ignore ghosts. The DPAH Mk2 is much more practical and less messy than the DPAH Mk1 which used a gallon of oil in a biscuit tin. Hopefully, if there aren’t too many dead flies in it, I can use the oil in Zephyr. Dave
