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Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica » - QUADRANS MEDIOCRIS
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« ... The
quadrants were called so because they could rotate about the "alidade":
the rotation was equivalent to 90°
... the pictured one is a "brass
mean azimuth quadrant"
... and it also was the last instrument Tycho ordered outside ... afterwards,
he manufactured everything in his own workshop, with great advantage for
the quality control. This also allowed to improve procedures very much...
all his studies helped him to build the colossal "mural
quadrant" having
a radius of 2 m. ... »
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«… With
the use of a plumb-line "G",
the instrument was leveled, so that its horizontal circle would become
parallel to the local horizon …
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The "pre-requisite"
required a reasonable estimate of the position
of a "star"
or of an "errant
star" , otherwise,
called planet …
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The instrument was positioned towards
where the star was expected to rise. Once it appeared in the view-finder,
the star could then be perfectly locked ...
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Horizontally, the
instrument could be rotated: 360°
...
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Vertically, the
instrument ranged from 0° to 90°
... therefore, it could be directed towards any point of the celestial
vault ...
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"The same measurement
was repeated many times by different assistants",
each of them used a different instrument. In this way it was possible to
statistically improve the accurateness of the measurement, for example
by using a "mean
value" ... »
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Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica » - QUADRANS MURALIS
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«… This
is considered Tycho’s masterpiece,
the very famous mural quadrant with a radius
of 2 m. ...
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It was fixed to a wall oriented towards the North-Southern
meridian ...
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As per figure below: the view-finder had
two narrow openings in line with a cylinder having same measures...
the star must show the same brilliancy, while
observing a ray and, immediately after, the second one
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