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/
