Page:Popular Astronomy - Airy - 1881.djvu/44

30 microscopes a, b, c, d, e, f, are attached. The face of the pier which carries the microscopes, fronts either



the east or the west. The construction of the instrument is this: there is a circle BC, which turns round an axis DE, (not visible in the view) that passes through the pier A. The circle BC has the telescope FG attached. This circle is graduated into degrees and minutes and other sub-divisions on its outside, containing 360 degrees in its whole circumference. Its position would be sufficiently observed for ordinary purposes if there were a pointer fixed to the pier at one part, but there are reasons (depending on the liability of the axis to be disturbed in its bearing, and on the tendency of the circle to bend under its own