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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Question about old sextant
From: Peter Monta
Date: 2018 Jan 25, 11:29 -0800
That part is called a "back sight"---it's used for measuring angles larger than the "forward mode" or "normal mode" can handle. See Figure 5b on this page:
I'm not too clear on why this attachment fell out of favor. Large angles can also be reached with auxiliary prisms, which might be one reason, or that a telescope for this mode is awkward to mount and use.
From: Peter Monta
Date: 2018 Jan 25, 11:29 -0800
Hi German,
Beautiful instrument.Cheers,
Peter
