A geodetic instrument, comprising: an alidade, a base and a center unit having an instrument optical axis, the center unit being mounted on the alidade for rotation about a first axis and the alidade being mounted on the base for rotation about a second axis intersecting the first axis, and a distance measurement module comprising an optical transmitter at an optical transmission point and an optical receiver at an optical reception point, said distance measurement module being operative to transmit an optical beam to a target along a transmit path, and to receive an optical beam from the target along a receive path, said geodetic instrument being characterized in that it further comprises: a beam splitter at which the transmitted optical beam and the received optical beam are merged in a measurement beam, and a deflection module located optically between the distance measurement module and the beam splitter and operative to aim the transmit path and the receive path at the beam splitter and to deflect the transmit path and the receive path across the instrument optical axis, wherein the beam splitter comprises a partially reflective surface through which the transmitted optical beam passes along the transmit path and which reflects an optical beam arriving via the receive path and/or wherein the beam splitter comprises a partially reflective surface through which passes the optical beam arriving via the receive path, and which reflects an optical beam transmitted along the transmit path, and wherein the optical transmission point, the optical reception point, the beam splitter and the deflection module are located in the center unit. an alidade, a base and a center unit having an instrument optical axis, the center unit being mounted on the alidade for rotation about a first axis and the alidade being mounted on the base for rotation about a second axis intersecting the first axis, and a distance measurement module comprising an optical transmitter at an optical transmission point and an optical receiver at an optical reception point, said distance measurement module being operative to transmit an optical beam to a target along a transmit path, and to receive an optical beam from the target along a receive path, said geodetic instrument being characterized in that it further comprises: a beam splitter at which the transmitted optical beam and the received optical beam are merged in a measurement beam, and a deflection module located optically between the distance measurement module and the beam splitter and operative to aim the transmit path and the receive path at the beam splitter and to deflect the transmit path and the receive path across the instrument optical axis, a beam splitter at which the transmitted optical beam and the received optical beam are merged in a measurement beam, and a deflection module located optically between the distance measurement module and the beam splitter and operative to aim the transmit path and the receive path at the beam splitter and to deflect the transmit path and the receive path across the instrument optical axis, wherein the beam splitter comprises a partially reflective surface through which the transmitted optical beam passes along the transmit path and which reflects an optical beam arriving via the receive path and/or wherein the beam splitter comprises a partially reflective surface through which passes the optical beam arriving via the receive path, and which reflects an optical beam transmitted along the transmit path, and wherein the optical transmission point, the optical reception point, the beam splitter and the deflection module are located in the center unit.