Meridian House

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In earlier observatories, the Meridian House was a building whose axis pointed exactly in a north-south direction. It was used to observe the meridian passage of stars, from which the exact star coordinates are calculated or to measure the true solar time .

The meridian house had either a continuous, slide-open observation slit or two separate slits in the south and north. The observation instrument was a large meridian circle or a passage instrument . The direction control was carried out with a Mire , the time measurements with evacuated pendulum clocks using the eye-ear method . From the 1960s onwards, quartz clocks were also used, but most of the Meridian buildings were shut down in the following years due to the advent of satellite geodesy .

literature

  • Karl Ramsayer : Geodetic Astronomy. Chapters 3-5 (celestial coordinates, projections) and 8 (instruments) (Handbook of Surveying; Volume IIa). 10th edition JB Metzler, Stuttgart 1970.
  • Günter D. Roth: Cosmos of astronomy history: astronomers, instruments, discoveries . Kosmos-Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-440-05800-X .