Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.8464
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Repeating altitude azimuth circle
Date
ca.1809
Creator
Edward Troughton (1753 - 1835, British) , Instrument maker
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Subject
Content object
Description
A repeating altitude azimuth circle, comprising a vertical axis, a horizontal azis, an azimuth circle, an alatazimuth mount and two telescopes.The altazimuth mount allows the telescopes to move along the vertical (altitude) and horizontal (azimuth) axes, aiding the user's mapping of faraway objects.
Discussed in Troughton's paper 'An account of a method of dividing astronomical and other instruments [...]', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol 99 (1809). Taken to India by Henry Kater in the early 1800s for use in the Great Trigonometrical Survey, a project which aimed to measure with scientific precision the entire Indian subcontinent.
Edward Troughton (1753-1835) British maker of scientific instruments was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810. His innovations in design were rewarded by the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1809.
Henry Kater (1777-1835) British geodesist and metrologist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814.
Discussed in Troughton's paper 'An account of a method of dividing astronomical and other instruments [...]', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol 99 (1809). Taken to India by Henry Kater in the early 1800s for use in the Great Trigonometrical Survey, a project which aimed to measure with scientific precision the entire Indian subcontinent.
Edward Troughton (1753-1835) British maker of scientific instruments was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810. His innovations in design were rewarded by the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1809.
Henry Kater (1777-1835) British geodesist and metrologist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814.
Object history
Exact provenance unknown, possibly presented to the Society by Kater on one of his return trips to London.
Related fellows
Henry Kater (1777 - 1835, British) , Geodesist
Associated place