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Subject: Re: New Use For Sextant
From: Dan Allen (danallen46@XXX.XXX)
Date: Wed Jun 12 2002 - 01:28:24 EDT
Bruce Stark lurks on this list as well! The mailing list had a good
exchange about lunars a few months ago.
The sun is finally showing itself here in the Seattle area; lunars will be a
fun summertime activity here!
Dan
PS - Welcome to the list!
-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX]On
Behalf Of Robert Eno
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 8:46 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX
Subject: Re: New Use For Sextant
Dan,
You are a man after my own thinking.
I am new to this forum so this is my first posting.
I have used my sextant to observe numerous solar eclipses. It is the best
thing for this purpose. I have never tried to take a photo though. Next time
around. You must have a steady hand.
Here's another use for a sextant: I used one of my aircraft bubble sextants
several years ago to take a round of shots of comet Hale-Bopp. I got the
emphermis data from the astronomy department of a Canadian university.
Didn't do too badly at that. Took four shots and averaged them out. I was
able to fix my position to within 2 nautical miles.
But if you really want a good excuse to use your sextant, I suggest that you
take up lunars. They are a hoot, and you will get some serious sextant
practice under your belt in the process. In 1999, a fellow by the name of
Bruce Stark published a simplified set of tables for clearing the lunar
distance. Mr. Stark spent over 20 years developing them. I in turn, spent a
few months in mastering them by constantly practicing out on my deck, late
into the evenings. Then came the sight reduction...
If you like sextants, you'll love lunars. I believe that these tables are
available from Celestaire in Wichita, Kansas. I highly recommend them.
cheers,
Robert
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Allen
To: NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 11:10 PM
Subject: New Use For Sextant
Last night we had a partial solar eclipse here in the Seattle Washington
area. I wanted to look at the eclipse so I used my Tamaya Jupiter sextant
with a 7X scope and a dark gray filter and a green filter. Worked great! I
had all of my family look through the sextant to view the eclipse. I then
had the idea to put my Kodak digital camera up to the sextant eyepiece and I
took a couple of decent photos!
Any excuse to use my sextants... ;-)
Dan
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