Next message: Bill: "Re: Can anyone tell me why my sextant has two sunshades?"
Greg, you asked:
"Can anyone tell me why my sextant has two sunshades?
I have a MAC sextant with four shades:
1 'redish' , 1 'greenish' , and 2 that are so dark as to only
be for the sun - why two?"
Bad design. I've got a MAC sextant, too. It's a nice "Tamaya-alike".
Presumably the design was licensed from Tamaya with details worked out by the
manufacturer. There are several other odd brands of sextants that in this category.
I like my MAC sextant a lot, but there are a number of little oddities. One
dark shade is so dark that I can only believe it is intended for use in the
unlikely event that the Sun goes supernova. It serves no real purpose. I use
the others in combination to get a dark enough level for Sun sights with this
sextant, and the results are excellent.
By the way, the other people who replied on this are certainly not wrong,
but until you've seen an ultra-dark shade, like on that MAC sextant, it's hard
to imagine.
You asked about a manual. I highly doubt that the MAC sextant shipped with
one. Many sextants don't have official manuals. Also, I agree with everyone
else that you should try a liquid mirror.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
