A surveying instrument comprising: a horizontal shaft for rotating a telescope of the surveying instrument vertically; a vertical shaft for rotating the telescope horizontally; a tracking section that includes an image sensor and an image processor, outputs a tracking light that is transmitted to a target, obtains a center of an image of the target by obtaining a difference between lit and unlit images of the image sensor, wherein the lit images include the tracking light and the unlit images exclude the tracking light, and obtains and outputs deviations (ΔH, ΔV) between a center of a field of view of the telescope and the center of the target; a tracking arithmetic section that makes the horizontal shaft and/or the vertical shaft rotate respectively to positions corresponding to the deviations (ΔH, ΔV) from the tracking section until a position at which deviations (ΔH, ΔV) between the center of the field of view of the telescope and the center of the target, fall within certain values; a motor control section that generates a control signal from an output of the tracking arithmetic section; motors (5,12) that rotate the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft in response to the control signal of the motor control section; and encoders (21,22) that detect rotation amounts of the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft, and feed-back the amounts to the motor control section, characterized in that the surveying instrument further comprises: a virtual target position calculating section that creates a position of a virtual target at polar coordinates or three-dimensional coordinates; and a virtual tracking section that, when the virtual target is present in a virtual field of view set in advance of the telescope, calculates and outputs deviations (ΔH, ΔV) from a center of the virtual field of view to a center of the virtual target; wherein the tracking arithmetic section handles an output of the virtual tracking section the same as an output of the tracking section, and determines rotational movements of the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft. a horizontal shaft for rotating a telescope of the surveying instrument vertically; a vertical shaft for rotating the telescope horizontally; a tracking section that includes an image sensor and an image processor, outputs a tracking light that is transmitted to a target, obtains a center of an image of the target by obtaining a difference between lit and unlit images of the image sensor, wherein the lit images include the tracking light and the unlit images exclude the tracking light, and obtains and outputs deviations (ΔH, ΔV) between a center of a field of view of the telescope and the center of the target; a tracking arithmetic section that makes the horizontal shaft and/or the vertical shaft rotate respectively to positions corresponding to the deviations (ΔH, ΔV) from the tracking section until a position at which deviations (ΔH, ΔV) between the center of the field of view of the telescope and the center of the target, fall within certain values; a motor control section that generates a control signal from an output of the tracking arithmetic section; motors (5,12) that rotate the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft in response to the control signal of the motor control section; and encoders (21,22) that detect rotation amounts of the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft, and feed-back the amounts to the motor control section, characterized in that the surveying instrument further comprises: a virtual target position calculating section that creates a position of a virtual target at polar coordinates or three-dimensional coordinates; and a virtual tracking section that, when the virtual target is present in a virtual field of view set in advance of the telescope, calculates and outputs deviations (ΔH, ΔV) from a center of the virtual field of view to a center of the virtual target; wherein the tracking arithmetic section handles an output of the virtual tracking section the same as an output of the tracking section, and determines rotational movements of the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft. a virtual target position calculating section that creates a position of a virtual target at polar coordinates or three-dimensional coordinates; and a virtual tracking section that, when the virtual target is present in a virtual field of view set in advance of the telescope, calculates and outputs deviations (ΔH, ΔV) from a center of the virtual field of view to a center of the virtual target; wherein the tracking arithmetic section handles an output of the virtual tracking section the same as an output of the tracking section, and determines rotational movements of the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft.