Sextant prices.
 

A vernier sextant was sold recently in a local saleroom, it was a real one, not one of the toys,made £80 and it had a heap of bits (scopes etc) with it. Is that about normal? I almost wish I had bought it, but one more bid and who knows where it ends.

I couldn't see any way to read Lat and Long directly from the scale, but Who knows.

Only in films could you do that.
All a sextant does is measure an angle between two objects.
After that the magic happens, requiring paper, pencil, rubber and a big books of tables.

And an accurate timepiece?
Thank goodness for all those time signals I piped through to the bridge. I knew we were useful for something as well as running the ships bar and getting the football results!

I have done a few Noon sights, I should have put ;>} at the end. Still got my Noddies Nautical Adventures.

I thought you might have been a radio officer.

I am dumbstruck. I did recognise the sextant, and I didn't go looking for a plug.

On a Bank boat I sailed with a second mate who had a vernier sextant. It had a small magnifying glass to make it easier to pick out the coinciding engraved graduations.
As I recall he had bought it whilst an apprentice with E-Ds, which would have been around 17 years before as he was 34 at that time. From Perth, he was the spitting image of James Robertson Justice. (Which has absolutely nothing to do with it).

I picked up a "yacht" micrometer sextant back in 1959 -- forget the exact figure although I have it in the back of my mind it was around £5. Was not quite as accurate as a full size sextant, but still got the job done to within a half mile or so.

Leave the Spakie jokes to Sparkies Mr. I! (or we'll unplug your GPS).

What's a Spakie ?

Bit like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETveS23djXM

I still have my sextant that I purchaced many many yeears ago from Cookes in Hull?.
I was made in 1942 and a vernier style one.
I know there are many of us dinosaurs still about but I will not part with it. On E-Bay you can see many for sale and some are replicas.

I think you're right. I always hear that music everytime I enter a room ... :jump::D

Personally I prefer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NjssV8UuVA whenever I enter a room.

My wife says it used to help when we had compact fluorescent lamps which needed time to brighten up !

an Austrailian Radio Officer......... Any idea what happened to SN seems to be down for quite a while ?

This is what is played when I enter a room; usually by myself as it's hard to get someone else to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmxHGQNTKSs

Of course it doesn't sound quite like that, otherwise I would probably not qualify for membership of this forum but be otherwise engaged, however it conveys the idea.

J. S. Bach .... the heavy rock star of the classical composers ... :supercool: