The Peking observatory in A.D. 1280 and the development of the equatorial mounting (original) (raw)
NASA/ADS
Abstract
One of the focal points in the intercourse between civilizations was the year + 1267, when the Persian astronomer JAMāL AL-DīN was sent by the Ilkhan from the Marāghah Obervatory to confer with the astronomers of the observatory at Peking directed by KUO SHOU-CHING. The dynastic history of the Yaun preserves accounts both of the designs or models of instruments which the Persian brought with him, and of the instruments which KUO SHOU-CHING set up about the same time. It is suggested that the "Simplified Instrument," essentially identical with the equatorial mounting of modern telescopes, was KUO SHOU-CHING'S modification of the earlier mediaeval Arabic and European instrument known as the torquetum. It was called "simplified" because the ecliptic components had been removed, in accordance with the system of equatorial co-ordinates, classically Chinese, and adopted generally in the West after the time of TYCHO BRAHE.
Publication:
Vistas in Astronomy
Pub Date:
1955
DOI:
Bibcode: