The sextant handbook: Adjustment, repair, use, and history Author: Bruce A Bauer | Language: English | ISBN:
087742344X | Format: EPUB
The sextant handbook: Adjustment, repair, use, and history Description
Loran and GPS notwithstanding, there will always be a place for the sextant aboard any blue-water boat, if for no other reason than the thrill and mystery of finding one's position on earth by gazing at the heavens. Here is the indispensable reference that should accompany the instrument aboard. Cmdr. Bruce Bauer, a professional navigator and master mariner with the U.S. Merchant Marine, has distilled years of hands-on experience into an eminently readable guide to buying, adjusting, using, and repairing sextants.
The Sextant Handbook is dedicated to the premise that electronic navigation devices, while too convenient to disregard, are too vulnerable to rely on exclusively. The book is designed to make beginner and expert alike conversant with this most beautiful and functional of the navigator's tools. Topics include:
- Assembly and Disassembly
- Vital Adjustments
- Avoiding Problems
- Rough Weather Sightings
- Oiling and Cleaning
- Immersion Baths
- Emergency Silvering
- Finding and Buying Used Sextants
- And Much More
You'll also find a list of distributors, manufacturers, and dealers worldwide, a discussion of future trends, and numerous helpful hints, including sighting with eyeglasses and using a Rude starfinder. All in a thoroughly revised edition of a book acclaimed by navigation professionals.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
- Hardcover: 189 pages
- Publisher: International Marine; 2nd edition (1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 087742344X
- ISBN-13: 978-0877423447
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
Sextants are bautiful instruments that let us determine our position by observing stars and planets. They are very precise optical instruments, and today, the least expensive new metal sextant costing around $... Such a precious and expensive instrument needs to be cared for properly.
This book contains very helpful information on how to adjust (or how not to adjust, to avoid damage) your sextant to ensure accurate sightings. The book also covers what can be done to continue to use a sextant after damage, including what repairs can be done by its user. It covers the use and storage of the sextant at sea, gives good tips on how to get good sights and times, and describes a number of sextant types, apparels, and accessories, along with their pros and cons. It also contains interesting information about the history of celestial navigation. I bought my sextant new, but there is a really good section on buying a used sextant. Cmd. Bauer also gives numerous contact information for sextant manufacturers, importers, and retailers, though I haven't checked if they are still up to date. At the very least they will be a good guide for the prospective buyer of a new or used sextant.
The pricing information on the book is outdated, and so are some of the things that are described, like Davis' prism to ensure verticality of the sextant, which is not manufactured or distributed anymore. But it is really well written, full of good information, and a very nice companion to your sextant, or a good guide before you buy one, used or new. Obviously, Cmd. Bauer knows what he writes about, and how to present his knowledge in a compelling manner.
By Frenchman
Bauer -- no, not Jack Bauer, and Bruce isn't his brother -- is an ex-Navy man and often it comes through his writing, which sets the books mood and tone. If you've battled with self-learning celestial navigation (as I am) you'll appreciate the beginnings of the book, and it IS more readable and understandable than much of what I've been through before. The second edition is dated 1992; the pricing he gets into on used sextants is worthless; his seemingly complete disdain for plastic sextants (I have a Davis Mk. 25) is pretty clear as well. Nonetheless, this is pretty clearly written, and in many cases explained theory/math that I was unable to grasp in other instructional books. I've still yet to make a correct sight, but I'm getting closer all the time!
By Gary P. Joyce
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