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Altazimuth quadrant
    • Setting:
      Room X
    • Inventor:
      Giovanni Domenico Cassini
    • Maker:
      Dubois
    • Place:
      Paris
    • Date:
      18th cent.
    • Materials:
      brass
    • Dimensions:
      250x220x280 mm
    • Inventory:
      684
    • Altazimuth quadrant (Inv. 684)
    • Altazimuth quadrant (Inv. 684)

This altazimuth quadrant is called a Cassini quadrant (after Giovanni Domenico Cassini). A frame is placed upright on a graduated brass arc. A small telescope slides along the graduated arc of a second quadrant attached to the frame. A second finder telescope pivots on a small pillar. The instrument served to measure vertical and horizontal angles and perform astronomical and topographic observations (such as determining the time and latitude). This specimen was built by a French maker named Dubois, about whom we have no information. Provenance: Lorraine collections.