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When the astrolabe is held vertically, the alidade can be rotated and the sun or a star sighted along its length, so that its altitude in degrees can be read ("taken") from the graduated edge of the astrolabe; hence the word's Greek roots: "astron" (ἄστρον) = star + "lab-" (λαβ-) = to take.
This glossary of astronomy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to astronomy and cosmology, their sub-disciplines, and related fields. Astronomy is concerned with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth. The field of astronomy features an extensive vocabulary and a ...
Another meaning are a type of Babylonian cuneiform tablets that discuss astronomy. Prior to that, "astrolabe" was an adjective in ancient times describing any tool made for taking the position of stars, for instance by Ptolemy in the Almagest. Astrolabe may also refer to:
Jost Bürgi and Antonius Eisenhoit: Armillary sphere with astronomical clock, made in 1585 in Kassel, now at Nordiska Museet in Stockholm. An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of celestial ...
The mariner's astrolabe, also called sea astrolabe, was an inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude (declination) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination. Not an astrolabe proper, the mariner's astrolabe was rather a graduated circle with an alidade used to measure ...
This astrolabe presents some unusual characteristics. All the engraved characters are in Latin , this fact made the scholars think that the instrument was made in the Christian Europe. The pointers of his "spider" indicate eighteen stars: ten boreal stars and eight austral stars (that is to say, situated beneath of the equator).
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The cosmolabe was an ancient astronomical instrument resembling the astrolabe, formerly used for measuring the angles between heavenly bodies. It is also called pantacosm . Jacques Besson also uses this name, or universal instrument , for his invention described in Le cosmolabe (1567), which could be used for astrometry , cartography ...