This might be a slightly odd request but this is the fediverse after all…
Does anyone have a sextant I can borrow?
I want to have some navigation-related activities for a workshop later in the month and this would be fun.
@rachel@norfolk.social
Alas distance makes it impossible for me to help you, but hilariously I -- someone in the middle of the #Canadian #prairies with zero access to sea or ocean, DO happen to have a #sextant.
The story of this is amusing (IMO) so please bear with me while I share. 🙂
So one day I'm at a chain #charity #secondhand goods store (#ValueVillage, in particular) and I find this weird triangular-ish item randomly among the less-categorised items.
At first I assume it is a toy: I don't keep up with modern kids' #TV or #film franchises but it looks like the sort of weird item that might get designed as some sort of #alien #weapon, especially as it was made of very dark plastic.
1/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
I pick it up to get a better look at it and notice it has some sliding parts and even some sort of gauge written along one part.
I'm still thinking it's a #kid #toy but am very impressed with the quality of the moulding: most plastoc toys are a bit rough here and there but this is absolutely smooth and the sliding bit moves smoothly.
I revise my guess to this being perhaps an #adult toy in the sense of it being a replica from some #SF #SciFi movie I'm unfamiliar with, made for either display or #cosplay.
2/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
As I turn the item around in my hands, I am still quite baffled by it.
I now discover there appears to be an eyepiece and in front of this are several changeable filters, as in, a stack of filters on a hinge that can be slid across the eyepiece one by one (or more) as-desired.
I am EXTREMELY intruiged now but still suspect this is something like a copy of something used in #SciFi.
The filters are what temps me to possibly buy this toy. I'm always interested in things related to changing light and I could probably remove these easily enough at home.
But I'm still pondering …
3/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
The item also has a looped cord on it, as black as the rest. I feel the cord but can't discern what it is for. It doesn't seem long enough to act as a chest strap for some sort of #weapon, at least, not for an adult.
And by this point I'm pretty sure this wasn't made for #kids to #play with.
I hold the cord and let the plastic item drop down, affirming that it is indeed quite light. Again, this makes me think it is a #replica or #copy of something from #film or #TV.
But as the item dangles from the cord, it swings slightly, back and forth, back and forth: just like a pendulum.
4/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
A pendulum! This jogs my brain to an apparently-random #memory, likely from #JamesBurke's #TheDayTheUniverseChanged series, about how #latitude was easy to determine via the skies, but that #longitude could not be measured until timepieces that did NOT require a #pendulum to drive it were invented.
Pendulum movement isn't very functional on a rolling #ship, after all.
And at that moment, the name of the item
I held and it's purpose snapped vividly to mind: it was a #sextant!
5/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
Again, I live nowhere near a sea or ocean. I've never seen an actual #sextant in real life, just ones in movies or illustrations.
And those sextants were always shiny #brass, not #plastic!
But now that I understood the object's purpose, I also realised that #plastic was an excellent #medium for using in a #boat or #ship: it won't rust or corrode from #water or #salt.
6/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
I decided to buy it. It was less than $5 #Canadian so not a big deal for an impulse purchase.
A few minutes later I came across the #sextant's box, complete with a carved-#foam interior, so old that the foam was starting to crumble to dust.
The box was priced separately, at something like $12.
When I went to the cashier, I showed that the two items clearly belonged together and could I get a discount on them as a single item? The manager let me have both for the price of the box.
7/x
@rachel@norfolk.social
So that is the story of how I happened to acquire a modern #sextant for only $12.
When I came home and could browse the Internet (this was long before I had data access on my phone), I discovered that yes, it was missing a tube or scope at the eyepiece section, but was otherwise complete.
I have been either busy or ill since acquiring it but do fully intend and expect to play around with it one of these days.
But I still laugh at myself for my brain being so misled by the sextant's material (dark plastic) and my general unfamiliarity with the devices (on the #landlocked #prairies ).
Clearly the charity store didn't recognise it either, or I'm sure it wouldn't have been casually tossed among miscellanea for $5, but behind glass at a rather higher price. 😂
Best of luck to you on your quest to borrow a sextant! 🙂❤
️
8/fin
Rachel Lawson
Likely Jan Lukas