The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh c5.48

c5.48

⁶ We have very little information about the observatory at Samarqand. Greaves stated that the quadrant used by Ulugh Beg was as high as the summit of St. Sophia at Constantinople, or about 180 feet. The earlier Muslim astronomers had also devised huge instruments. In A.D. 995 Abu-l-Wafā used a quadrant of radius 21 feet 8 inches; al-Khojendi used a sextant with radius 57 feet 9 inches. Naṣir al-Din set himself the task of perfecting instruments, etc. See Sédillot's Prolégomènes des Tables astronomiques d'Ouloug-Beg, p. cxxix. See also page 81 for a fuller account of Muslim instruments.