SEXTANT PROJECT - Part One

So my bucket list has "Become Proficient at Celestial Navigation" near the top of the list. I've always wanted to possess and use a good sextant, and thus be able to navigate and find my spot on the planet without resorting to 'lectronic wizardry. (Instead, all that's required for non-'lectronic navigation are: Trigonometrics, Big Fat Charts and Tables, highly accurate wristwatches, hyper competence, and ... a sextant.) Come to find out, navigating is as complicated as most of us on the outside always suspected it was. 

First step, after acquiring a lotta how-to books, was to obtain a sextant; which is this fancy tool to measure sun, star and other 'celestial' movements. It's kind of a drafting compass on steriods.They are (still) damned expensive, despite the fact that almost everyone has switched to GPS units* and the aforementioned 'lectronic wizardry. Earlier this year I was able to acquire a pretty nice Davis Mark 15 sextant. Despite being made of plastic, it is a reliable tool to find all this complicated stuff out. I like it a bunch, and it has allowed me to make many of the newbie mistakes novices have to make in order to learn. I'm getting better at using it, learning a lot and am now able to find the location of my house about a third of the time.

Anyway, I still have this desire to own one of those high-dollar metal sextants that used to be the standard for practicing celestial navigation. You can practice 'lectronic navigation wizardry for about two-hundred bux or less. Metal sextants run anywhere from six hundred to more than a thousand bux; even used ones. I started looking on ebay and everywhere to find a deal, since on my limited income stream owning a metal sextant seemed beyond my reach. I eventually discovered this neglected, trashed-out and  corroded Simex sextant in serious need of restoration. Since as my friend Todd Settimo has noted, restoration/rescue is my "thing" I'm confident I can bring this sextant back. It was 80 bux delivered! Researching it I found that it was made by the Tamaya sextant folks for a celestial navigation teacher to sell to his students so that they would have a good, reliable professional sextant. It's not the highest level of sextant, but certainly right in the mid-range of better-than-good instruments. Right now this particular one of mine is a piece of crap with parts damaged and lots of corrosion. It came out of one of the vessels the ship-breakers in India take apart. Gawd knows what it has been through over the years since the 70's.

Luckily I know where to get replacement parts; and since I am the King of Restoration/Rescue I have confidence and no doubts that I can bring this old instrument back up to operational goodness. Yeah, yeah, there are gonna be an abundance of celestial navigation nerds warning me that a newbie shouldn't try to work on such a delicate/fragile instrument and that it's damn near impossible not to screw up some essential setting or accuracy calibration. Nah. Not to worry. With me, the restoration is in good hands, and - as a back-up -  I know a guy who can do the final inspections and set-ups.  For a little elbow grease, some bottles of chemicals and some good tools I'm sure I can get this sextant to live again, all within my budget.  I'll keep y'all in the loop as I work through the transformation. Meantime, my Davis Sextant and a good watch are reliably teaching me all the basics ....

*One trouble with GPS units: https://www.wired.com/story/spoof-jam-destroy-why-we-need-a-backup-for-gps/