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Review on ๐ŸŒŠ Precision Navigation Tool: Davis Marine Sextant - Enhance Your Nautical Adventure by Phil Kuebler

Revainrating 3 out of 5

The mirror of the horizon often shifts

I have had a very mixed reaction to this product. On the one hand, it's a very affordable, useful sextant. On the other hand, it often has a serious disadvantage - the horizon mirror (below) is often shifted and cannot be adjusted. When you look through the eyepiece, the right side of the horizon mirror simply reflects the side of the sextant. Only the left side of the horizontal mirror reflects the image from the straightening mirror. The horizontal mirror must be perfectly perpendicular to the side of the sextant in order to reflect the entire image of the index mirror (as shown in Figure 7 on page 6 of the manual http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/). . marine/manuals/00011-220_IM_00011.PDF). Instead it is tilted and only reflects the image of the right side of the aiming mirror. When I told Davis about the problem, they sent me a second sextant, but that made the problem worse. I actually measured the horizon level with calipers; its width is 17 mm. The first sextant showed the image of the straightening mirror only in the left 8 mm of the horizon mirror, or in the left 47%. The second sextant showed the image only in the left 6mm or 35%. (If the image is reduced to 0mm, the sextant is completely useless.) When I informed Davis again, they sent me a third sextant that was slightly better. It showed the image in the left 11mm horizon mirror, or 65%. So I kept the third sextant as it works fine otherwise and sent the other two back. If you're buying this sextant, I highly recommend checking the tilt of the horizon mirror. Do not remove the sextant for use as a lifeboat emergency sextant without first checking the horizon level.

Pros
  • Inspires confidence
Cons
  • Exchange availability