Name: Marean Kielhorn Director
Brand: Air instruments Inc
SKU: marean-kielhorn

From 'The sundial goes to sea': The United States Navy operating in the Pacific Ocean and other areas, against the Japanese and Germans, used the Marean-Kielhorn Director, their lifeboats being equipped with them. The instrument is based on the Saphea universal astrolabe and is a horizontal stereographic projection for a given latitude, there being a set of plastic cards for many latitudes supplied in the instrument’s Bakelite case. In operation, the instrument worked very much like a sextant. It was suspended vertically and an altitude measurement of the sun or a star was taken through the sights. The sights had various filters to allow observation of the sun directly. Unlike the sextant the image obtained was not lowered to the horizon, instead the instrument was then laid flat and the relevant information extracted. Results depended largely on the skill and training of the operator and LAT, true north, sun’s declination and right ascension, sun’s maximum altitude, time of sunrise and sunset and so on could all be found. The U.S. Merchant Marine used this lifesaving device well into the 1970s.

This instrument was probably never used. It had a moldy smell to it which could be from the solvents in the plastic. It is however in great condition except for the box.

Marean Kielhorn Director

Marean Kielhorn Director manual

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