Incredible ! At a time when the GPS networks multiply (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou-2, and soon Galileo) an exceptional engineer, sailing enthusiast, creates a company and invented the sextant replacing Dad : an electronic sextant requires no knowledge, announced with a precision of less than one nautical mile, the G-Stell.
At Nautic Paris, on the iTabNav stand for ten days, I unfortunately did not have time to meet Franck Polidor, when he presented his jewel. But I read all the press has written about, and frankly I regret having missed. I have already expressed, several tickets (¹) My commitment to this wonderful instrument, the sextant, and I am truly amazed to see such a creative launch innovative against the tide of current navigation systems product.
Based on two SMEs Norman high-tech, Sominex for the electronics and Starnav for astral navigation, G-Stell handles like a riflescope. Equipped with an inertial, of a camera and suitable electronic, G-Stell recognizes the stars listed, measure angles and manages calculations. It connects to a computer to display the results. Still in test phase, the goal is to achieve an accuracy of less than one nautical mile.
Here's a tool that will greatly interest the merchant navy, a sextant is always required on board ships. And for us boaters, if by chance a disaster deprived us of the GPS system, solution as the G-Stell could be beneficial, especially since it is not certain we could find for a long time sextants traditional manufacturing.
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(¹) About alignments and sextant / Celestial-astro focus on iPhone and iPad
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