NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2020 Jan 26, 12:56 -0800
Roger Sinnot, you wrote:
"What is wrong with the one shown in the magazine?"
What's wrong with it? It's a fake. More generously, it's a "decorative reproduction". An unfortunate number of celestial navigation beginners have been burned by these decorative toys. You can see a "shiny" version on the website of the maker/distributor here: https://www.stanleylondon.com/ [...] .html (screen cap attached, with a few notations). I think the best analog of this company in the US would be the "Franklin Mint". Imagine if Sky & Telescope published a photo of "Newton's Telescope" and it turned out it was a dust-collector sold by the Franklin Mint. That would be bad.
The image itself is taken from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_sextant.JPG. See the other marked-up screen cap below.
Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA
