Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A mounting for astronomical telescopes that permits pointing adjustments in both altitude and azimuth.
- noun A telescope having such a mounting.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An astronomical instrument for determining the altitudes and the azimuths of heavenly bodies.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Astron.) An instrument for taking azimuths and altitudes simultaneously.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
telescope orsurveying instrument that has amount permitting bothhorizontal andvertical rotation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an instrument that measures the altitude and azimuth of celestial bodies; used in navigation
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The instruments provided for the journey consisted of two barometers, two thermometers, two compasses, a sextant, two chronometers, an artificial horizon, and an altazimuth, to throw out the height of distant and inaccessible objects.
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The instrument which they employ to measure the angles from which to deduce the height of the clouds is a peculiar form of altazimuth that was originally designed by Prof. Mohn, of Christiania, for measuring the parallax of the aurora borealis.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 Various
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This figure shows the peculiar ocular part of the altazimuth, with the vertical and horizontal circles.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 Various
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The camera and lens that I use habitually for photographing cloud forms -- not their angular height -- was planted a few feet from the altazimuth with which M. Ekholm was observing, and while he was measuring the necessary angles I took a picture of the clouds.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 Various
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We saw that the altazimuth employed at Upsala had no lenses.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 Various
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This is a remarkable result, and shows conclusively the superiority of the altazimuth to the photographic method of measuring the heights of clouds.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 Various
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It resembles an astronomical altazimuth, but instead of a telescope it carries an open tube without any lenses.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 Various
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Ransome and May, to construct an altazimuth with three-foot circles, and a five-foot telescope, in 1847.
History of Astronomy George Forbes 1892
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Römer, star places, 10; invention of equatoreal and transit instrument, 120; of altazimuth, 121; velocity of light, 231; satellite transit on Jupiter, 291
A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century Fourth Edition 1874
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He himself, however, by much more exact observations, with an excellent altazimuth, reduced the alleged error from 20 minutes to only 4-1/2, or to 9-40ths of its formerly supposed value.
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