NavList:

Pete-

A few years ago I was working on a master’s thesis (never completed) and my project was going to be a digital sextant/theodolite.  So I did a fair amount of looking into digital inclinometers. The most accurate were the ones that only had a +/- 20^o or so range of motion, whereas the sextant had to work from 0^o – 90^o .  So my proposed solution was to mount a bunch of them , each offset by, say,  15^o . The software would know to switch from one inclinometer to the next as the sextant is rotated upward.

The other alternative, for the theodolite, at least,  is to have a single inclinometer mounted to the optical  base. The operator roughly levels the base to within , say +/- 10^o of level, and  the inclinometer would take it from there. Obviously this solution wouldn’t work on the deck of a ship or the cockpit of an airplane.

As for my remark about sextants being obsolescent – forgive me, but for most folks it’s true. However, as you point out, in the event of a conflict such a device would become invaluable, especially since it would be relatively easy to use, with minimal training. To say nothing of some not-too-distant future explorer roaming about the surface of a GPS-deficient planet (moon? Mars?). They won’t look anything like the ones we have today, but I’m sure they will be used.

Paul Dolkas

From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Pete Solon Palmer
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2017 2:54 PM
To: paul@dolkas.net
Subject: [NavList] Re: New ways to create false horizons?