Heliometer n. (Astron.) An instrument devised originally for measuring the diameter of the sun; now employed for delicate measurements of the distance and relative direction of two stars too far apart to be easily measured in the field of view of an ordinary telescope.
... occasion to the chronometers purchased by the Admiralty. In March a pigeon-house was made for exposure of chronometers to cold.—The Lunar and Planetary Reductions were going on steadily.—I was consulted about an Observatory at Oxford, where I supported the introduction of the Heliometer.—The stipend of the Bakerian Lecture was paid to me for my explanation of Brewster's new prismatic fringes.—The business of the Cape Observatory and Survey occupied much of my time.—In 1838 the Rev. H. J. Rose (Editor of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana) ... — Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy • George Biddell Airy
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