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How about:
http://silkpress.com/archive/discovery/autumn2005/ulugbek.shtml


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Royer, Doug [mailto:Doug.Royer@REMECRDS.COM]
> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 1:21 PM
> To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
> Subject: FW: Re: Ulugh Beg's sextant
>
> Let's try:
> http://silkpress.com/archive/discovery/autmn2005/ulugbek.shtml
>
>
> Thanks Fred. Helps if one does a search under the proper
> title to get results.
> I now know what this sextant looks like and how it was used.
> Interesting.
>
> Here's a link for anyone interested:
>
> http://silkpress.com/archive/discovery/autumn2005.ulugbek.shtml
>
>
>
> Doug,
>
> I can't help you out much with most of your questions, but
> one comment is that the device probably was not a sextant in
> that it probably did not employ the double reflection
> principle.  I would expect it was a sighting tube of some
> kind, oriented in the north- south axis, which could be
> pointed at various elevations to read off the meridian
> altitude of a star directly.  A quick Google search confirmed
> this conjecture.
>
> Fred
>
> On Mar 24, 2006, at 1:35 PM, Royer, Doug wrote:
>
> > Ok, I'm now reading a very good book dealing with
> observatories past
> > and present.
> >
> > There is an interesting chapter on the Samarkand Observatory in
> > Uzbekistan that Ulugh Beg built and used for astronomical
> observations
> > in the 1400's.
> >
> > There is a crude description of the FAKHRI SEXTANT used by the
> > Samarkand Observatory that was used to measure the position of
> > thousands of stars to within a few seconds of arc. It has a
> radius of
> > 120 ft.
> >
> > After a quick search on the web today for pictures or a better
> > description of this sextant I came up dry. There are a few
> pictures of
> > parts of the observatory but none that are identified as the Fakhri
> > sextant.
> >
> > There is 1 picture of a section of a structure which has 1 vertical
> > stone wall on each side of a center groove and 2 stone
> tracks running
> > in a vertical arc between the 2 walls on either side of the center
> > groove.
> >
> > I had pictured this "sextant" as kind of matching how Stonehenge is
> > constructed for celestial observations. But now I'm more interested
> > than ever to find what this "sextant" really looks like.
> >
> > Frank, because you're an astronomer, can you help or point
> me in the
> > proper direction to get a better understanding of what this looks
> > like? Visually or at least a better written description. Or
> can anyone
> > else help out in this quest?
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

   

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