transit instrument

American  

noun

1. Astronomy. meridian circle.

2. Surveying. transit.

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transit instrument British  

noun

1. an astronomical instrument, mounted on an E-W axis, in which the reticle of a telescope is always in the plane of the meridian. It is used to time the transit of a star, etc, across the meridian

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Etymology

Origin of transit instrument

First recorded in 1805–15

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transit instrument

The planetarium's dome will float over a reflecting pool, will house an "intermediate space transit instrument" which will project the heavens not only as they appear on earth but from the moon.

From Time Magazine Archive

Surveyors make use of this proposition when they wish, without using a transit instrument, to run one line parallel to another.

From The Teaching of Geometry by David Eugene Smith

He invented the transit instrument, mural circle, equatorial mounting for telescopes, and most of the other principal instruments now in use in observatories.

From Pioneers of Science by Sir Oliver Lodge

"That the Conference proposes to the Governments here represented the adoption of the meridian passing through the centre of the transit instrument at the Observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude."

From International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884. Protocols of the Proceedings by Various

In 1721 he got a transit instrument, and in 1726 a mural quadrant by Graham.

From History of Astronomy by George Forbes

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