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Frank,

I knew Gauss invented a heliotrop for his
geodesic measurements, and that he was very proud
with this invension. I understood the general principle
(a Sun ray is reflected from one mountain top to
another, where it is accepted and the angle between
this ray and something else is measured.)
But in never occured to me that this could be a sextant-like
devise used for sending/accepting this ray.

Alex

On Fri, 9 Mar 2007 FrankReedCT@aol.com wrote:

> Alex E wrote:
> "This leaves open the question what sort of strange index mirror we see in
> this picture"
>
> I finally have a lead for you. It does indeed have a split index  mirror. The
> instrument is a "vizeheliotrop". What is a vizeheliotrop? That  I don't know
> :-). There are some German web sites that describe it, but my  German is not
> up to the task. Here are a couple of photos I found of  the original
> instrument. This modified sextant may have been a precursor to the  heliotrope which
> Gauss invented during his survey of the Kingdom of  Hanover.
>
>
>
> -FER
> 42.0N  87.7W, or 41.4N  72.1W.
> www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
> 


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