NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Purchasing a sextant
From: Stan K
Date: 2015 Oct 18, 19:26 -0400
From: Stan K
Date: 2015 Oct 18, 19:26 -0400
Chris,
IMHO, the standard Astra IIIIB (not the professional) is the best sextant value (quality/cost) available today, probably surpassing used German sextants from reputable dealers. I have two of them, one with a traditional mirror and one with a whole horizon mirror (so my students can compare apples to apples), and the students and I love them. I don't think you can go wrong with an Astra IIIB.
Stan
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Willmes <NoReply_Willmes@fer3.com>
To: slk1000 <slk1000@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Oct 18, 2015 12:21 pm
Subject: [NavList] Purchasing a sextant
From: Chris Willmes <NoReply_Willmes@fer3.com>
To: slk1000 <slk1000@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Oct 18, 2015 12:21 pm
Subject: [NavList] Purchasing a sextant
Hello. My name is Chris Willmes. I've been following NavList for some months now, and this is my first post. I learned celestial navigation decades ago in the Canadian Navy, but it has been quite a while now since I last used a sky wrench in anger. I'm no longer in the Navy, and I don't have a boat (or even a friend with a boat), but I would like to reacquaint myself with the art. I plan to buy a sextant, and I'm leaning towards purchashing a new instrument, since it would not have been abused (I would hope) and ought to be accurate right out of the box (i.e., instrument errors would be known and consistent). I know that an inexpensive plastic sextant would suffice for practising technique, but I would rather have something more like what I used to use. I am considering the Astra IIIB, in part because choice here in Canada seems to be limited, and I would rather avoid th complications of currency exchange, customs duties, etc. I would appreciate the thoughts and suggestions of the members of the group.
Yours aye,
Chris
