Instruments of Ancient Observatory

On climbing to the roof of the museum, one is privy to the unique giant bronze instruments that one could see from the street below.There are only eight in number and they were designed in the Qing Dynasty with such classy names as celestial globe, dragon quadrant, ecliptical armilla and azimuth theodolite. As there were originally more than these eight instruments, some of them were stolen by the Germans and French during the invasion of Beijing by the Eight Nations' Allied Forces in 1900. Following persistent outcry by the Chinese, they were returned to China after the World War 1. In 1931, some of the more ancient instruments were sent to the Nanjing to evade the invading Japanese. Those in Nanjing are at the Purple Mountain Observatory Museum and the Nanjing Museum.

Armillary Sphere
Used to measure the coordinates of celestial bodies. There were two types, an ecliptic armillary used to track the sun, and an equatorial armillary for other bodies.
- The equatorial armillary was built in 1673, during the Qing Dynasty. There is also a 1673ecliptic armillary.
- The ecliptic armillary was built in 1744, during the Qing Dynasty. It seems that the ecliptic armillary is a little more complex than the equatorial armillary.
Quadrant
Used to measure alitudes or zenith locations of celestial bodies.
Theodolite
Used to measure altitude and azimuth coordinates of celestial bodies.
Azimuth Theodolite
Used to measure the azimuth coordinate of celestial bodies.
Sextant
Used to measure the angular distance between celestial bodies and to measure the angular diameter of the sun and moon.
Celestial Globe
Used to determine the rising and setting times of celestial bodies as well as determining the altitude and azimuth of celestial bodies at any time.

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Beijing Tour Routes Covers Ancient Observatory
We can arrange the visiting of Ancient Observatory in a Beijing one day tour
The visiting of Ancient Observatory need 30-50 minutes.

Photo of Ancient Observatory