astrolabe

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as·tro·labe

(ăs′trə-lāb′)

A medieval instrument, now replaced by the sextant, that was once used to determine the altitude of the sun or other celestial bodies.

[Middle English astrelabie, from Old French astrelabe, from Medieval Latin astrolabium, from Greek astrolabon, planisphere : astro-, astro- + lambanein, lab-, to take.]

astrolabe

(ˈæstrəˌleɪb)

1. (Navigation) an instrument used by early astronomers to measure the altitude of stars and planets and also as a navigational aid. It consists of a graduated circular disc with a movable sighting device. Compare sextant

2. (Astronomy) an instrument used by early astronomers to measure the altitude of stars and planets and also as a navigational aid. It consists of a graduated circular disc with a movable sighting device. Compare sextant

3. (Tools) an instrument used by early astronomers to measure the altitude of stars and planets and also as a navigational aid. It consists of a graduated circular disc with a movable sighting device. Compare sextant

[C13: via Old French and Medieval Latin from Greek, from astrolabos (adj), literally: star-taking, from astron star + lambanein to take]

as•tro•labe

(ˈæs trəˌleɪb)

n.

a medieval instrument used to determine the position of the sun or stars.

[1325–75; Middle English, variant of astrolabie < Medieval Latin astrolabium < Late Greek astrolábion, Greek astrolábos=astro- astro- + -labos to seize]

as`tro•lab′i•cal (-ˈlæb ɪ kəl, -ˈleɪ bɪ-) adj.

astrolabe

a navigational instrument formerly used for taking bearings of the sun and stars. See also representation.

astrolabe

[ˈæstrəʊleɪb] N → astrolabio m

astrolabe

n → Astrolab(ium) nt

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References in classic literature ?

"And I can visit the celebrated islands where the Boussole and the Astrolabe struck?"

They embarked in the corvettes Boussole and the Astrolabe, neither of which were again heard of.

Dumont d'Urville, commander of the Astrolabe, had then sailed, and two months after Dillon had left Vanikoro he put into Hobart Town.

On the 10th of February, 1828, the Astrolabe appeared off Tikopia, and took as guide and interpreter a deserter found on the island; made his way to Vanikoro, sighted it on the 12th inst., lay among the reefs until the 14th, and not until the 20th did he cast anchor within the barrier in the harbour of Vanou.

The large boat and the whaler belonging to the Astrolabe were sent to this place, and, not without some difficulty, their crews hauled up an anchor weighing 1,800 lbs., a brass gun, some pigs of iron, and two copper swivel-guns.

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We know this because he wrote a book, called A Treatise on the Astrolabe, for this little son.

Chaucer calls his book A Treatise on the Astrolabe, Bread and Milk for Children.

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But we must have already emerged and gone seven hundred or eight hundred leagues; and if I had here an astrolabe to take the altitude of the pole, I could tell thee how many we have travelled, though either I know little, or we have already crossed or shall shortly cross the equinoctial line which parts the two opposite poles midway."

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But when it came to almagest and astrolabe, the counting of figures and reckoning of epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse and hound, and a vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher that he had lost his hold upon his scholar.

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Nor did he know it was the head of La Perouse, the doughty old navigator, who had left his bones, the bones of his crews, and the bones of his two frigates, the Astrolabe and the Boussole, on the shores of the cannibal Solomons.

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287; Ulloa's Voyage; Voyage of the Astrolabe and of the Coquille; Captain King's Survey of Australia, etc.

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The place is stored with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes, astrolabes, and other astronomical instruments.