NavList:

Dear Noell,

As I said, I don't know how to evaluate the glass myself. But I can tell you some history. SNO-T was produced by LOMO (Leningrad Optico-Mechanical Union) using the equipment looted from Germany after WWII (from Carl Zeiss, Freiberger and other manufacturers). They also made some excellent binoculars and photo-cameras (called Zenith). In particular they used the anti-reflecting coating invented by Zeiss.

SNO-T is in fact an improved version of Freiberger: they added the inverting scope and the original Illuminator-magnifier (which does not use electricity!) I also think that the arc of ANO is somewhat longer: -5 to 140 degrees. So it is almost a "pentant", rather than a sextant.

However Soviet engineers did not always fully understand what they were doing. I know two pieces of evidence of this. One is the absurd certificate they issued for my sextant. Another is the amazing, unbelievable fact discovered by NavList participants: it turns out that during the whole period of manufacturing SNO-T, they were attaching the horizon filters assembly UPSIDE DOWN! It does not have any effect on performance though.

Alex.