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Re: Sextant accuracy and possibility of future improvement
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2016 Jul 20, 11:15 -0400
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2016 Jul 20, 11:15 -0400
On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 10:38 AM, John D. Howard <NoReply_Howard@fer3.com> wrote:
I have a total station ( theodolite ) that reads to one second but it has a 40X scope on it. I could never hand hold the scope and get a good view - too shakey. As long as you hold a sextant in your hands there will be a limit as to how precise the mesuremunt CAN be.
I recall a fellow engineer who was working on a concept for reducing the tremor of a hand held rifle. It was device with momentum wheels (as used on satellites) and gyros that attached to the gun to counteract small yaw and pitch angular motions.
To measure the effectiveness, a small laser was attached to the barrel, shining a spot on a target down range. It was very easy to see the radical change in the amount of jitter when the device was switched on and off.
But likely too expensive and heavy for practical application to a hand held sextant.
Don Seltzer
