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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Purchasing a sextant
From: Randall Morrow
Date: 2015 Oct 18, 16:15 -0700
From: Randall Morrow
Date: 2015 Oct 18, 16:15 -0700
I purchased a used Astra IIIB, used on Ebay 4-5 years ago and it has served well. The stated accuracy is 20 seconds of arc as compared to 10-15 seconds from the German or high end Japanese units. Since other sources of error are larger than the 10 second difference, I'd save the money and go with the Astra. Even with error inherent with my use of an artificial horizon, Astra results are good. The index error stays consistent for long periods. Horizon quality and attention to detail in sight taking will have much more impact on accuracy than the extra 10 seconds.
Kind regards, Randy
