Celestaire Products including Astra Sextants, Sight reduction Tables, Nautical Almanacs, and Plotting Sheets

Celestaire Products

Celestaire, Inc

The flight instrument was a Celestaire Astra III Professional hybrid brass/aluminum sextant, serial number 1183118. It was outfitted with a 7x35, 6.5◦field-of-view prism telescope for sighting.
The manufacturers calibration certificate is dated Feb 11, 2015 and indicates performance within 0.1 arc min in the regions as indicated in Table 1. This model was chosen based on results from the 2015 study for its accuracy (achieved by the superior machining tolerances of the brass arc vs. aluminum) combined with the lower mass and slightly more compact construction of the aluminum
frame than a solid brass instrument. A spare telescope, horizon mirror, and index mirror were flown for the experiment as well as a microfiber cleaning cloth, adjustment wrench, and screwdriver. A
lanyard was included but was not used by the crew, as they indicated it was not needed in microgravity and having hook-and-loop fastener tape on the handle was more useful for temporarily securing the sextant to a wall if needed.
The model of sextant instrument used is shown in Figure 2. Flight certification required evaluating and documenting all the components for acceptable characteristics of flammability, outgassing, fracture, etc. The main safety concern for use on ISS was breakage of the glass or mirror components during vibration loads, so it was placed in two plastic bags and stowed in protective foam for launch as shown in Figure 3. The crew reported the instrument had no damage upon first unpackand inspection on-orbit.

Products Details for the Astra III Professional Sextant

Astra III Professional

celestaire-astra-iii-professional-sextant-with-tra.png

Astra III Professional with Case

NASA Selects Astra III Professional for testing on International Space Station.
Just as the Astra IIIB has become world famous as the premier low cost metal sextant, the Astra III Professional Model with its low cost, high accuracy, and excellent handling qualities is destined to be the standard for professional seamen. Its constructed with a bronze arc fused to an aluminum frame making it very light weight.

Astra III Professional Sextant

an7fZ-GZxHo

Tenair

Datalayers

<noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5L67WR6"
height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>

Google Tag Manager

Preference center

Cookie Bot

Log in to add this article to your reading list

Would you like to read this article again later?

Metstrade 2026

Delete Account

Messages

The table below shows the Banner Name(s) that will appear on your stand(s). This name was provided during registration and may differ from the company name in your Company Profile. Changing your company name in the profile does not affect your Banner Name. 
If you wish to change your Banner Name, please contact Account Support.

We are working on creating more insights regarding the stands at RAI. Please visit the FAQ for more information about this topic.

Products

Astra III Professional Sextant

Astra Professional Sextant

Newsletter

Organised by

Powered by

Endorsed by

Member of

Flagship event

Strategic partner