NavList:

Hello everyone,

My first sextant was a Davis Mk 25, so I got used to the semi-reflective version and honestly, I find it very practical and easier to use than the split horizon mirror and even more for those sailors who will only use the sextant during that day in case of a catastrophic electronic failure.

Later I started to practice with a couple of sextants with traditional split horizon mirror (C. Plath and Tamaya), and it took me some time to use it properly, in particular when using the telescope lenses that need to be well aligned to the center of the split mirror.

Also, when using marine sextants in mid/high latitudes (above 50 degrees) in wintertime the sun Hs is quite low so there is a lot of sunlight reflection on the ocean horizon which makes it difficult to see it clearly. In my experience, the split horizon models work better in that case.