Re: sextant handle/legs on wrong side?
Subject: Re: sextant handle/legs on wrong side?
From: Joe Shields (jshields@XXX.XXX)
Date: Mon Sep 13 1999 - 09:21:19 EDT
You mean all celestial navigators aren't left-handed?
-- Joe (Lefty)
> ----------
> From: Paul Hirose[SMTP:71202.2014@XXX.XXX]
> Reply To: Navigation Mailing List
> Sent: Monday, September 13, 1999 2:31 AM
> To: NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX
> Subject: sextant handle/legs on wrong side?
>
> Bruce Bauer's "The Sextant Handbook" brings up an interesting point I
> never considered: a sextant handle on the right is on the wrong side
> for right-handed people. The sextant has to be transferred to the
> left hand or dangled on a neck strap in order to write down the
> observation. He equates this to a right-handed baseball player
> wearing a mitt on his right hand.
>
> Bauer once encountered a 1920s sextant with everything on the opposite
> side from current practice. It didn't feel at all uncomfortable to
> hold in his left hand, he says. I certainly never felt handicapped as
> a lefty because I had to observe with the sextant in my right hand.
> And yes, it IS nice to keep the sextant there while I'm writing!
>
> Another complaint Bauer has is that sextant legs are on the wrong side
> too. I.e., the handle is underneath when the instrument is resting on
> its legs. Putting the legs on the opposite side would let you pick it
> up with one hand. Also, the legs would provide some protection for
> the delicate parts.
>
> Someone mentioned seeing a movie in which Kate Jackson put a sextant
> down on its mirrors. Do you think the lady was trying to tell us
> something?
>
