5.14 What sextant should I buy to learn with?
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This article is from the Boats FAQ, by John F. Hughes with numerous contributions by others.
5.14 What sextant should I buy to learn with?
Good sextants are expensive (about $3000US is not unusual), and the
inexpensive plastic ones (Davis make the best-known) are far cheaper. For
learning, or even for real navigation, the Davis models are fine, but
require more careful and frequent adjustment, and often seem to give less
accurate results.
They will give a result accurate to within about 2 minutes of arc, which
should get your position right within about 3 miles or so. Errors made by
beginners are usually computational or mistakes of understanding, and
tend to be far greater than this. So a plastic sextant makes a fine tool for
learning. Buy one, and if you like it, keep it as a spare when you go
offshore.
Hints: to keep the readings accurate, beware of temperature fluctuations,
which warp the sextant (temporarily). In winter, wear gloves. In summer,
watch out for having part of the sextant in sun and part in shade. And
last but not least, always approach your reading from the same side (i.e.,
always increase the angle until the sun is on the horizon_don't increase
and then decrease and then increase, etc.) This prevents backlash from
screwing up your readings. (jfh)
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