Astronomical Transit
notes: label: Description
content: Astronomers used transit instruments to determine the meridian altitude of a star and, in conjunction with a clock, the time a star crossed the meridian. A “broken” transit has a mirror or right-angle prism that sends the light from the objective to an eyepiece at one end of the horizontal axis. This example came from the U.S. Naval Observatory. The objective is 2.5-inch aperture. The vertical circle is 8.5 inches diameter. The level at the other end of the axis is 8.5 inches long.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U. S. Naval Observatory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.328500
label: accession number
content: 282476
label: catalog number
content: 328500
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Astronomical Transit
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 35 in x 30 1/4 in; 33.02 cm x 88.9 cm x 76.835 cm