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Alex E., you wrote:
"In many e-bay listings, it is difficult to tell a replica from a genuine one, and most of the listings are replicas. One needs very good pictures, especially of the scale. I can send you pictures if you wish."

Me, too, please.

I would love to see pictures showing any of the details that might be useful to distinguish an original, genuine box sextant from a replica "decorative" box sextant. I would love to have one myself! If it's easier for you, email photos to me, Frank@ReedNavigation.com, and I can clean them up and post them for the group.

You've mentioned here that you get one minute of arc accuracy from your box sextant. That's excellent. Do you find that it's reliable and stable accuracy? If these compact sextants are as good as you have reported, and reliably so, then I have to wonder if there's some way to get them back into production. What allows and enables such accuracy in such a small, convenient sextant?

There's some good background and a few nice photos on Bill Morris's Nautical Sextant website here: https://sextantbook.com/2010/01/07/a-box-sextant/. Coincidentally, this article dates from just about 15 years ago, which is a match for your story, too, Alex. I suppose there were a few nice antiques bouncing around the market back in 2009/2010!

Frank Reed

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