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Author
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Topic: Astra IIIB Deluxe vs Astra III Professional
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G Jackson
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posted March 20, 2025 07:50 PM
Anything that I can find online about the performance difference between these two is very generic. Directly from Celestaire’s website regarding the Professional-
“Its construction is similar to the Tamaya sextants in that it has a bronze arc fused to an aluminum frame. The bronze arc can be manufactured to a higher tolerance than aluminum, which gives the sextant higher accuracy.”
Does anyone have any actual accuracy numbers associated with these two that can be used to justify the extra cost?
To StarPath: Do you think the bronze arc is worth the extra cost? I will be using the sextant to learn CelNav, and then primarily as a backup to GPS.
Thanks!
From: Wilmington, NC, USA
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David Burch
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posted March 21, 2025 09:49 AM
We recommend the Astra IIIb with traditional mirror.
If you have done just a few sights or thousands of sights, you will not do any better navigation with a different sextant, even if it costs 3 or 4 times more.
We have extensive discussion of cel nav accuracy in our textbook Celestial Navigation and there are numerous real ocean passage examples and special analysis techniques in our book Hawaii by Sextant.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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