NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: C. Plath Bubble Horizon
From: R B Emerson
Date: 2008 Jul 30, 10:27 -0700
From: R B Emerson
Date: 2008 Jul 30, 10:27 -0700
I'd like to branch this topic and ask about the older "full monty" Plath bubble horizon. I have one and I've got some questions about it. First, the rubber around the eyepiece (call it an eyecup, I guess) is basically on its way out (dried out and crumbling along a part of the edge) - can anyone recommend a reasonable (good fit and costs less than a new sextant ;-) ) replacement? Second, except with the solar filter over the objective, the bubble is simply too dim to be seen when shining a bright LED flashlight down through the opening for the bulb. Even then, the image is very dim. Advice on living with the bubble horizon, in general, is welcome (anyone got a PDF of the instructions?). (The battery compartment in my Plath still needs help, thanks to a less than attentive prior owner - hence the test with a flashlight) I bought the unit as part of a sextant sold on eBay some time ago (well over 5 years ago at least). In retrospect, this may have been something of a con job gone wrong as the sextant may well have been the Soviet SNO/CHO clone, sold as a Plath (what did I know?), but the bubble horizon is a for-real Plath horizon, bought for peanuts (I sold the sextant and the buyer didn't gripe - no hurt, no foul, I guess). On Jul 3, 5:24 pm, Ken Gebhartwrote: > Joel, > > About five years before C. Plath went out of production (say 6 years > ago?), they came out with abubblechamber which did not have the > adjusting mechanism. As I recall, it had an internal battery, and did > not rely on the batteries in the sextant handle. I also seem to > recall that the light had no adjustable rheostat either. I asked > them why they omitted these desirable features. They replied that > they were made to milspec, and that's what the specs said. They were > very expensive too, about $1700. I believe this is the unit you have. > > Their previous adjustable bubbles were very nice, and dated nearly > back to WWII. I don't know when they were discontinued. > > Ken Gebhart >[...] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---