The Sextant Handbook: Adjustment, Repair, Use and History 2nd Edition

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Item # MH-52190  ISBN: 0070052190




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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.

Table of Contents

Introduction | A short history | Elements of the sextant and four vital adjustments | Attachments and accessories | Care, maintenance and repair | How to buy a sextant | Sighting techniques | Correcting the sight | Timing the sight accurately | Searching for stars | Sextants of tomorrow

The Sextant Handbook: Adjustment, Repair, Use and History 2nd Edition