reflecting circle

English

Noun

reflecting circle (plural reflecting circles)

1. An astronomical instrument for measuring angles, like the sextant or Hadley's quadrant, by the reflection of light from two plane mirrors which it carries, and differing from the sextant chiefly in having an entire circle.

Translations

• French: cercle de réflexion (fr) m

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “reflecting circle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)