Astrolabe Catalogue

 
Date18th century
PlacePersia
Inventory no.41524
AcquisitionPresented by Mrs D. E. Thurston in 1955

Although astrolabes are usually made of brass, which endures the ravages of time rather well, parts of the instruments are still commonly lost or become separated. The smaller pieces, obviously, are the easiest to lose. However, as a number of instruments in the collection testify, larger pieces such as alidades, retes and even plates can be lost.

Rather than the more usual situation of an astrolabe from which one or two plates are missing, in this case two plates (the other one is inventory no. 88453), evidently long since separated from their astrolabe, were given to the Museum by a member of the public in 1955.

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Plates

There is one plate for latitude 22°0' . More information

 

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