Engineering:Groombridge Transit Circle
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Revision as of 17:45, 16 April 2022 by imported>John Stpola (change)
Groombridge Transit Circle was a meridian transit circle made by Edward Troughton for the English astronomer Stephen Groombridge in 1806, which Groombridge used to compile data for the star catalogue, Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars.[1] The advantage of a transit circle over a mural circle (which can measure polar distances) is that it allows measuring right ascension and declination at the same time.[2]
It had an aperture of 3.5 inches and a 5-foot focal length, mounted inside two 4 foot circles on stone piers.[2] Groombridge used the instrument to determine the positions of over 4000 circumpolar stars.[2]
It was eventually bought by James South, and it remained at his observatory at Kensington until 1870.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ Groombridge Transit Circle, 1820. -- Science and Society Picture Library
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 King, Henry C. (2003). The History of the Telescope. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Courier Corporation. pp. 234–6. ISBN 978-0-486-43265-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=KAWwzHlDVksC&pg=PA234.
Further reading
- Royal Institution of Great Britain (1823). The Quarterly Journal. 16. John Murray. p. 189. https://books.google.com/books?id=kgIXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA189.
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