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Re: Octants in Winslow Homer's "8 Bells" Painting
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2015 Apr 11, 13:01 -0400
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2015 Apr 11, 13:01 -0400
On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 11:56 AM, Ed Popko <NoReply_EdPopko@fer3.com> wrote:
I'm nit picking the celestial navigation scene depicted in Winslow Homer's "8 Bells" painting - which is quite lovely.
Given that it was completed in 1886, it seems to me that sextant designs had been out for quite some time. The use of Octants here suggests the ship owner or captain were chapskates or perhaps they never felt a need to do a lunar and need the larger 120 degree arc, extra filters, etc. offered by a sextant. For sure, an Octant will do it all if you are not into lunars or backsights.
Or perhaps these two mariners believed in redundancy, and had purchased octants as a backup to their primary sextants. And why not use the less expensive octants for routine noon sun sights, saving the sextants for lunars?
Don Seltzer
