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Doug Royer wrote:
"But now I’m more  interested than ever to find what this “sextant” really
looks like."

It  was essentially a very large naked-eye "mural quadrant" (if you google
that,  you'll probably come across the famous one from the Greenwich
Observatory). I  think the use of the word "sextant" in this case is a sort of shorthand.
Once  upon a time, almost everybody with any education knew what a sextant
was. So by  saying, "it's a sextant", the underlying concept was immediately
comprehensible.  The accuracy was presumably a few minutes of arc, but I have
never checked the  observations myself. Anyone? Also, there were almost certainly
other instruments  in the observatory. They have not survived, as far as I
know.

So, why  Samarkand? Ulugh Beg was the grandson of one of world history's
greatest  conquerors, Timur, also known as Tamerlane, whose capital was Samarkand.
Timur  was famous for decapitating all who resisted him and making pyramids
out of the  heads (famously when he sacked Baghdad). After Timur's death, in
the rapidly  unravelling Timurid domains, Ulugh Beg was made governor of
Samarkand while the  main center of power shifted south.

Ulugh Beg was one of the wealthiest  men in the world in his day, living off
his grandfather's plunder, and he had a  hobby: astronomy. So he built an
enormous observatory complex (enormous for its  day), and staffed it with
observers and mathematicians. He was a great patron of  astronomy. Ulugh Beg was
eventually overthrown and his head was lopped off.  Maybe he should have spent less
money on his hobby! The observatory was mostly  destroyed. Only the portion
of the "sextant" which was below ground was saved  since it was simpy filled in
with rubble. It was excavated in the 20th  century.

Ulugh Beg made it onto a stamp back in the Soviet  days:
http://www.th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/gif/stamps/s_ulughbeg.jpg
If  my rusty Russian is right (Alex?), the caption on the right, under 1437,
reads "  'New Astronomical Tables' major work of the observatory of Ulugbek,
expounding  the theoretical principles of astronomy and data of observations of
the stars".  Vertical text: "Observatory of Ulugbek in Samarkand
(Cross-section through the  meridian)".

-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N  72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars

   

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