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Subject: sextant use
From: Peter Fogg (ffive@XXX.XXX)
Date: Wed Jun 12 2002 - 23:22:03 EDT
At first sight I thought I had no useful information to offer (and that
may still be the case) but can add to the sort of comments recently
received.
Australia has a population of about 18 million, Sydney the biggest city
about 4 million. In Sydney curently I am aware of only 2 classes
teaching celestial navigation, of the only one I have personal knowledge
of it struggles to remain viable, with class sizes you can count on the
fingers of one hand. Try to keep in contact with as many classmates as
possible, invite them to join us making observations (even those I don't
know personally) and would estimate that a figure of 10% remaining
interested and regularly using a sextant would probably be wildly
optimistic. There are very few retail outlets selling sextants, they
typically may have one on offer.
As far as I know Celestaire seems to be the largest and most active
company selling sextants and associated materials. Presumably they would
know how many they sell, now and in the past, but might prefer keeping
such figures to themselves. And that doesn't tell us how many users
there are with machines that could have virtually any age. I imagine
some people collect or keep them for other reasons than practical ones,
just as some people collect expensive camera equipment simply because
they appreciate fine instrumentation.
Actually I know this is the case. There is a shop here, in the tourist
trap, which specializes in old stuff with a marine flavour, presumably
for decoration. They have some lovely old sextants there in woeful
condition.
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