Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81565 in Books
• Published on: 1995-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780070052192
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"It is an excellent book, unique in its field." -- The Ensign

"The wealth of useful material is prodigious and by the time onw has reached the back cover, the sextant is an old friend." -- Yachting World

"This is a good book... The author writes clearly and knowledgeably." -- Sailing

From the Back Cover
"The wealth of useful material is prodigious and by the time one has reached the back cover, the sextant is an old friend. Just as important, Cdr. Bauer deals comprehensively with maintenance and service, and his advice on how to select and assess a second-hand sextant is truly worthwhile. Refreshingly, he writes in a friendly manner--almost as though he is chatting to a group of students. A thoroughly enjoyable book."--Peter Milne, Technical Editor, Yachting World Magazine (England)

"If this book is a highly detailed technical manual, the reader is hardly aware, so plentiful are the diversions into related topics. It makes great reading and virtually everyone . . . regardless of one's skill level with a sextant . . . will find new things to learn about sextants, their history, their future and their best use."--Ocean Navigator

"The sextant and Commander Bauer's handbook should be standard equipment on every seagoing vessel. It is a book that should be provided with every sextant and class in navigating."--R. J. Holt, Director, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

"One recognizes here a centennial Lecky on the sextant. There is plenty of new material presented in a manner that would make a stranger want to meet Bruce Bauer and converse with him face to face."--Paul M. Anderton, Navigation Instructor

"Cdr. Bauer's book will become a standard reference on the sextant for professional and amateur navigators around the world. I have been doing celestial navigation since 1953 and have not, until now, been able to find so much information on the sextant collected in one place."--A. W. Fowler, Ocean Racing Navigator

"Bauer has succeeded in gathering a wealth of information from a multitude of sources and brought it all together into a fascinating book for the mariner. I recommend it to those who navigate the ocean's highways."--Warren P. Davis, Colonel, USA (Ret.), Sextant Authority

"Insecurity is sitting on a boat in the middle of the ocean staring at an out-of-whack sextant and not knowing how to fix it. I know from experience. This book should be mandatory equipment on every boat that goes offshore."--Wayne Carpenter, Author, The Voyage of Kristina

About the Author
Cmdr. Bruce A. Bauer, USN (ret.), is a professional navigator and master mariner with the U.S. Merchant Marine. He presently commands a Navy research vessel sailing between the United States and the Caribbean islands and recently commanded the ship that was successful in relocating the historic sunken submarine Monitor off Cape Hatteras. A former destroyer captain, Cmdr. Bauer has taught radar and been a senior instructor for the Master Mates and Pilots School of Advanced Studies and also served as the commander of the Naval Research Lab at Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. In addition to The Sextant Handbook, Cmdr. Bauer has written articles on the subject of marine sextants for Cruising World and SAIL magazines. He lives with his artist wife, Nancy, on the shores of the Chesapeake in Deale, Maryland.

Customer Reviews

A book for the sextant lover
Sextants are bautiful instruments that let us determine our position by observing stars and planets. They are very precise optical instruments, and today, the least expensive new metal sextant costing around $... Such a precious and expensive instrument needs to be cared for properly.

This book contains very helpful information on how to adjust (or how not to adjust, to avoid damage) your sextant to ensure accurate sightings. The book also covers what can be done to continue to use a sextant after damage, including what repairs can be done by its user. It covers the use and storage of the sextant at sea, gives good tips on how to get good sights and times, and describes a number of sextant types, apparels, and accessories, along with their pros and cons. It also contains interesting information about the history of celestial navigation. I bought my sextant new, but there is a really good section on buying a used sextant. Cmd. Bauer also gives numerous contact information for sextant manufacturers, importers, and retailers, though I haven't checked if they are still up to date. At the very least they will be a good guide for the prospective buyer of a new or used sextant.

The pricing information on the book is outdated, and so are some of the things that are described, like Davis' prism to ensure verticality of the sextant, which is not manufactured or distributed anymore. But it is really well written, full of good information, and a very nice companion to your sextant, or a good guide before you buy one, used or new. Obviously, Cmd. Bauer knows what he writes about, and how to present his knowledge in a compelling manner.

sextant repair and use
This book is a necisity for anyone that wants to sail beyond the coast. It has excelent advice on the use adjustment and purchasing of your primary navagational aid. Yes I know you have a gps (genuine piece of ) you must be able to find your way without it.

How to read signts--Nowhere in the handbook
The most important use of a handbook is to tell you how to read sights taken by the sextant. That, you cannot find here; thus the 1 star.

To be fair, there are 2 attempts at this, but by way of captions to figures or drawings. The first is Fig. 2-3 at page 41. The supposed reading is 29* 42'.5. The 29* is easily shown by the arrow pointed to the scales in the arc; and so is the 42" indicated in the micrometer drum. But how can you tell .5 minutes from the vernier?

The second is Fig. 7-4 at page 129 that demonstrates index error corrections for "on the arc" and "off the arc" index errors. Again, the "minutes" portion of the readings are easy, but that for fraction of "minutes" is pure guess work.

The handbook should have devoted an entire section to correct reading of the sextant.